SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ken Hardie

  • Member of Parliament
  • Member of the panel of chairs for the legislative committees
  • Liberal
  • Fleetwood—Port Kells
  • British Columbia
  • Voting Attendance: 67%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $140,090.09

  • Government Page
  • Dec/7/21 2:11:43 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I rise to register deep concern over the performance of some local radio outlets during the storms and flooding in British Columbia. On one forum, a former broadcaster commented, “After watching Abbotsford Mayor Braun's 9pm press conference on the city's YouTube channel last night, warning residents of Sumas Prairie to evacuate NOW...I thought I'd dial up the city's radio station to hear what they were doing. After painfully struggling through a 5-minute commercial cluster, they played their station ID and went back to another 10 [songs] in a row!” A disaster can wipe out land lines, cellphones, cable and the Internet, but traditionally news and alerts have always been as close as that car or truck radio. I plan to ask the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to review broadcasters’ performance in B.C., including disaster plans, staff resources and technical resiliency. With station ownership now so much in the hands of large corporations, there is no excuse for Canadians to be underserved.
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  • Nov/24/21 10:41:34 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I have a question on a different part of the community infrastructure, but I want to congratulate the member for his very obvious grasp of the essential elements in his communities. I think they are being well served. Based on experience I had a long time ago when I was on the radio in Kamloops, we broadcasted to Merritt and we broadcasted to Princeton. If anything happened, people could turn on the radio and find out what was going on. How did the broadcasters perform in your communities during this emergency?
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