This section contains an alphabetical listing of key services provided by the Legislative Assembly Administration to Members and their staff. Services include those related to a Member’s work in the Parliament Buildings, as well as those that support constituency operations. Further descriptions of Assembly services and staff are available on the Legislative Assembly Administration page. You can find contact information for each relevant department on the Assembly Contacts page. You can also connect with any of the departments by contacting Client Care.
Members and staff will be issued photo ID card-lock security passes to access the Parliament Buildings. For more information, contact Client Care.
If your card is lost or stolen, immediately contact Legislative Assembly Protective Services, located near the main entrance to the Parliament Buildings.
Assistance with building and grounds maintenance, including janitorial, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, and moving services. For information on maintenance requests, please visit the Legislative Facility Services page on the Dome.
Members may book the following committee rooms by contacting Client Care:
- Hemlock Room (room 116) – table seating (14), overall room capacity (30)
- Rattenbury Room (room 139) – table seating (10), overall room capacity (25)
- Maple Room (room 240) – table seating (12), overall room capacity (14)
- Cedar Room (room 241) – table seating (12), overall room capacity (20)
- Oak Room (room 303) – table seating (12), overall room capacity (24)
- Birch Room (room 339) – table seating (17), overall room capacity (30)
Each room is equipped with a telephone, television, conferencing speaker phone, Wi-Fi access, and a flip-chart/whiteboard. The Hemlock, Rattenbury, Cedar, Maple, and Oak committee rooms have Apple TVs for wireless iPad/iPhone presentations, and all rooms have serial connectivity ports for displaying laptop computer presentations onto either a television or a projector screen. Additional resources can be arranged upon request.
There is a 30-minute buffer between meetings in order to clean the room and to prepare for incoming group set-up and technical logistics. Unless your meeting has complex set-up requirements, there is no need to add this additional time in your room booking.
Members can use the Ned DeBeck Lounge on the third floor of the Library at any time.
Copying, printing, and other document services and support are provided by the Copy Centre. You can submit a work order, request service, and order supplies by contacting the Centre directly.
The Copy Centre is open Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The Parliamentary Dining Room (room 008) operates year-round to serve Members and their guests, as well as caucus and Assembly staff, members of the press gallery, and the general public. The Dining Room is open for breakfast and lunch and remains open for dinner on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays when the Legislative Assembly is sitting. The menu, designed by an award-winning chef, features fresh B.C. ingredients when seasonally available, as well as delicious and healthy daily and weekly specials.
Each Member is assigned a customer account number so charges can be deducted from their pay. Alternatively, Members may pay in cash, by personal credit card or by debit card. A separate customer account number is assigned to each ministry. Ministers may also designate individuals from the Minister’s office to charge on the account. A sample signature form obtained from Financial Services is required for authorization.
Dining Room hours of operation and the current menu are accessible via the Parliamentary Dining Room page on the Dome. Members may make a reservation or request take-out or catering services by calling the Dining Room. For catering inquiries, contact the Manager of the Parliamentary Dining Room.
The Parliamentary Education Office provides Members with a variety of educational resources to support parliamentary outreach activities. In addition to online publications a selection of print resources is also available to assist in connecting with school and other community groups about the work of the Legislative Assembly and the role of an MLA. Members may request MLA Classroom Kits to take along on visits to local schools or have them mailed directly to the teacher of their choice. The Classroom Kits are available for both elementary and secondary students and include a variety of resource materials for the teacher and students.
In addition, $1,500 is available to Members each fiscal year to purchase specialized educational resources for outreach activities in their constituency; the MLA Educational Resource Guide provides a suggested combination of resources and intended audiences.
The Parliamentary Gift Shop is located on the first floor adjacent to the visitor exit of the Parliament Buildings. A variety of protocol gifts, featuring British Columbian and Canadian products, are available for purchase, including items produced exclusively for the Legislative Assembly.
The Gift Shop offers a 20% discount for Members on all items, exclusive of special package offers. New items are added to the Gift Shop’s inventory throughout the year. Members can also request a specific item or request a customized option.
How to order:
- Members’ offices can place orders by contacting the Gift Shop
- Invoices will be emailed to the constituency office.
- The constituency office will then submit the invoice for payment through the DocuWare system with the Member’s approval.
- Items can be delivered to the Member’s legislative office or constituency office.
- If urgent, the Gift Shop can arrange for the package to be sent to the constituency office by courier (at the office’s expense).
- On request, the Gift Shop can provide gift wrapping services.
Live broadcasts and webcasts of Legislative Assembly proceedings, including committees, are streamed live on the Legislative Broadcasting and Webcasting webpage. All meetings that are streamed live are archived and available for playback on demand approximately 15 minutes after the event concludes. Archived webcasts of the Legislative Assembly, Committee of the Whole, and Committee of Supply (Sections A, B, and C, as applicable) can be found on the Debates pages via the ‘Read the Debates (Hansard)’ link on the Legislative Assembly website’s home page. Archived parliamentary committee webcasts are available through the Committee Meetings page.
Members may request video and/or presentation copies of their speeches and debates using the Hansard Broadcasting Media Request Form.
Specific rules regulating camera operations in the Chamber can be found within the Hansard Services Broadcasting Guidelines.
A preliminary draft transcript called the “Blues” is produced for all Assembly debates and proceedings. The Blues are produced and posted online on an ongoing basis during any given meeting, with the complete Blues typically available online approximately an hour after adjournment. Blues are further revised and edited before being published as the Official Report of Debates (House) or the Report of Proceedings (parliamentary committees). All final Hansard documents are published in a digitally certified, archival PDF standard and posted on the Legislative Assembly website.
The Official Report of Debates for each sitting can be found on the Debates pages via the ‘Read the Debates (Hansard)’ link on the Legislative Assembly website’s home page. The Report of Proceedings for committee meetings can be found on the Committee Meetings webpage alongside HTML versions, a comprehensive index, and an archived audio webcast.
Hansard Services makes every effort to ensure that all personal names that appear in the transcript are spelled correctly and will contact Members and their staff to confirm the spellings of any names that cannot be independently verified. Any information that Members can provide in advance (e.g., names of guests being introduced, texts of Statements by Members (SO 25B Statements), speaking notes), will help to ensure the accuracy of the initial transcript, the closed captioning, and sign language interpretation. Material can be emailed directly to the Hansard Services research team or sent in hard copy via the Sergeant-at-Arms chamber staff. Any such material will be treated as strictly confidential.
Members may request corrections to transcripts. Further information on correction requests is available within the Hansard Publications and Guidelines for Corrections by Members.
Information technology-related assistance is available from the IT Service Desk. The IT Service Desk is staffed during the following hours:
Monday to Friday: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Monday to Friday: 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Major Event On-Call Coverage
Saturday, Sunday, and holidays: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Major Event On-Call Coverage
Wireless access (Wi-Fi)
Wireless access is also available throughout the Legislative Precinct through the following networks:
Legislative Assembly Guest Wi-Fi: Open network for any member of the public to access and use, as well as a home for personal devices.
Legislative Assembly Wi-Fi: Corporate network open to Legislative Assembly of B.C.-owned devices.
Member Cell Phone and Landline Phone Support
Technical support is available for phone equipment in constituency offices, including cell phones and landline services. The Information Technology Department coordinates the installation and support of landlines and Internet access in all constituency offices.
Legal Services offers comprehensive legal advice and services to the House as an institution, as well as to the Speaker, the Legislative Assembly Management Committee, Members, caucuses, parliamentary committees, the Clerk, and the Legislative Assembly Administration. Counsel specialize in numerous areas of law, including constitutional, parliamentary privilege, contracts, defamation and political speech, employment, procurement, information and privacy, intellectual property, social media, security, statutory interpretation, and the application of federal and provincial laws to the operations of the Legislative Assembly and to the functions of its Members.
Legal Services also offers legislative drafting services, assisting Members in drafting Private Members’ Bills and motions to amend all Bills before the House.
Notary Services
Notary services are available to Members while in Victoria attending to parliamentary business and away from their constituencies, as well as to caucus staff.
Located behind the Chamber on the second floor, the Legislative Library provides information, reference, and research services to Members and their staff, including constituency office staff. All information requests are treated in the strictest confidence and all Library staff are non-partisan employees.
The Library is open 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday to Friday, and until adjournment on sitting days. Requests for Library services can be made in person or by contacting the Library Reference Desk. The Library catalogue and other online resources such as the BC Government Publications Search Portal and article databases are accessible via the Library website.
The Legislative Library maintains print and digital collections of current and historical material to support public policy development, and to document the work of the Legislative Assembly. The Library has a full run of the British Columbia statutes, regulations, ministry and crown agency reports, statistics, and news releases. These materials document the political, historical, economic, and cultural history of the province. The Library will purchase reading material on topics of interest to Members such as health, economics, education, political science, and parliamentary procedure. There is also a large collection of political biographies and British Columbia community histories. E-book accounts can be set up for Members by request.
Copies of the major provincial daily newspapers are delivered to Members during Legislative Assembly sitting periods. The Legislative Assembly covers the cost of these newspaper subscriptions. Newspaper subscriptions for Ministers’ offices are paid for by the respective Ministry.
Newspaper databases and custom media-monitoring services are available from the Legislative Library. Current newspapers from around the province as well as magazines are available in print format in the Library Reading Room. The Legislative Library also offers digital access to publications including The Globe and Mail, Times Colonist, Vancouver Sun, The Province, and more via PressReader, a full-colour database that contains more than 7,000 publications from over 120 countries. To start using PressReader, go to the Library’s e-resources webpage and click PressReader. Once you’ve set up an account, you can download the app.
The Library’s B.C. Daily News Update is a roundup of B.C.’s top political news stories from the Times Colonist, Vancouver Sun, and The Province, as well as local community newspapers across the province. B.C. Today is a daily report on B.C.’s provincial legislature, and provides coverage of the work of the House and committees. The Parliament Today newsletter provides daily coverage from Parliament Hill. All newsletters can be delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Contact the Library to subscribe.
The Library also offers custom news scans. Whether a single media scan to get up-to-speed on a topic, or a weekly scan to keep abreast of new developments, a package of articles can be compiled on any topic. Contact the Library to request a custom media scan.
Each Member is entitled to one assigned parking space on the Legislative Precinct.
Members are asked to opt-in or out of the parking benefit on an annual basis. The opt-in or opt out process must be completed by all Members.
Once an option is selected, pursuant to the Legislative Precinct Parking Policy, the Member is locked into the option for a year. An assigned parking space on the Legislative Precinct is a taxable benefit, and the fair market value is assessed on an annual basis at the beginning of each fiscal year.
Visitor parking information for cars, school and tour buses, and bicycles can be found under Transportation and Parking on the Legislative Assembly website.
For assistance, contact Client Care.
Each Member is allocated a photography allowance for professional photographs. Members arrange their own photographer and may claim up to a maximum of $600 per Parliament. Amounts exceeding $600 will not be reimbursed and will be considered a personal expense.
The photography allowance is reimbursed from centralized funds and is not deducted from a Member’s constituency office allowance. At the end of a Parliament, any unused funds do not carry forward to the next Parliament.
For assistance, please contact Client Care.
The Legislative Precinct is available to Members, staff acting on their behalf, caucus staff, employees of the Legislative Assembly, and the public to host events. Use of the legislative outdoor grounds can be requested by anyone, pending approval by the Precinct Use Committee. Use of the interior of the Parliament Buildings is restricted to Members, staff acting on their behalf, caucus staff, and employees of the Legislative Assembly, though a Member or caucus can sponsor and host a community group to use an interior space. A request can also be made for the Legislative Precinct to be illuminated with themed colours to commemorate an event. The Precinct Use Committee administers the process and maintains a list of upcoming events and lighting requests. Members wishing to hold an event may contact Client Care or fill out the request form online. For more information, please refer to the Precinct Use webpage and Policy 6015 – Precinct Use.
For Members wishing to display exhibits in the Parliament Buildings, please refer to Policy 6050 – Exhibit and Display.
Members’ offices may reserve seats in the public galleries for guests to attend Question Period by contacting Client Care. Please provide the guests’ first and last names, the name of the Member hosting the guests, and the contact person’s name and phone number. Seat preferences will be accommodated whenever possible.
Public tours of the Parliament Buildings are managed by the Parliamentary Tours Program. Public and school tours are available year-round and are booked online.
The Parliamentary Education Office can also assist Members by providing specialized tours of the Parliament Buildings for friends, family, and constituents. These tours can be tailored to meet the needs of the Member and can provide your guests with a special ‘behind the scenes’ look of the building. Staff orientation tours are also available.
In the event of an emergency where there is immediate harm to self or others, call 911.
For urgent inquiries on the Legislative Precinct, call 250-387-5555.
Security services for the Parliament Buildings and grounds are provided 24 hours a day by Legislative Assembly Protective Services (LAPS).
For routine security inquiries, contact the LAPS Reception Office, located near the main entrance, or Ray Robitaille, Sergeant-at-Arms.
First Aid matters can be referred to the LAPS Operations Centre. All Sergeant-at-Arms staff have basic first aid training, with several staff members trained to an advanced level.