By Don Lehn

AG Barry Penner At The Chamber Of Commerce Lunch

Chilliwack, B.C. - Friday at the Chamber Of Commerce Luncheon, Chilliwack Hope MLA Barry Penner, who is also the Attorney General, address three topics.

The Independent Investigations Office has been set up in response to the Braidwood Inquiry. That was the watchdog that oversaw the Robert Dziekanski case where a Polish Man was tasered at YVR in 2007. This will stop the practice of cops investigating other cops. When will this be up and running?

"We’re hoping to have the office up and running by the end of this year, and we are working on the budget details and we have to do some recruitment(civilian force) first to fill the top job then that person has to build a team around him or her. But our goal is to have the doors open by the end of this year."

There will be a 4 year review in 2015 to see how effective its been . In a rare show of unity, the opposition NDP backs this decision to form this review board.

There has been plenty of whining about the new and tougher drinking and driving law. That starts at .05, with stiffer penalties at .08 Restaurants and bars claim its hurting business. Penner noted that the .05 law itself has been on the books for over three decades.

"In BC, you could be suspended from driving if your blood level is .05, and that’s been for the past thirty years. That has been the law. What’s changed are the penalties."

That includes a $200 fines and a three day driving ban. What about hurting business? Penner says we have adjusted our thinking, and so have proprietors . That includes patrons and restaurant and bar owners making better provisions for cabs home for those who had one too many.

As well, more people are just have one drink and going to the liquor store to have their spirits at home, where they don’t have to worry about a tipsy and dangerous drive home.

The other stat Penner noted is that deaths due to drinking and driving have dropped in half since the laws were toughened up. The penalties use to be a 24 hour road side suspension.

As the A-G, he is responsible to oversee the dreaded HST referendum, as his office works in concert with Elections BC. The spanner in the works, is that the posties may go on strike. The vote is a mail in ballot and Penner knows that there isn’t much he can do to persuade Canada Post to keep working. The ballots are to be mailed out between June 13 to 24 and have to be received by Elections BC July 22. In the case of a strike, an extension has been built into the system.

Sorry, we still have to vote on the tax!

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