BC Paper Petitions – The Rules

Petition Rules
  • Petitions must be addressed to “The Honourable the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia, in Legislature Assembled.” Petitions addressed to the Government of British Columbia or to a particular minister will not be accepted.
  • Petitions must not request any expenditure, grant or charge on the public revenue.
  • Petitioners must be residents of the Province of British Columbia and provide their name and address.
  • There is no minimum age requirement for anyone signing a petition.
  • If a petition consists of more than one sheet of signatures, the full text of the petition must appear at the top of each sheet so that each petitioner signs under the full text of the petition.
  • Each sheet of a petition must contain a minimum of one signature, properly filled out with their name, address and signature.
  • Other signatures on each sheet of the petition may include people experiencing homelessness, indicated by “no fixed addressed” in the address column along with the BC municipality where they reside (no other form of identification is required). If a person cannot sign their own name because of illness or a disability, this must be noted on the petition and the note signed by a witness.
Original, Hard-copy Petitions
  • The petition must be in original form; not a photocopy or printed scan.
  • All signatures must be original and written directly on the face of the petition, and not pasted or transferred to it. Petitions must be free of erasures or insertions.
  • Petitions must be written, typewritten or printed, and the paper must be standard letter or legal size.
We have a petition ready for you to use

We drafted a petition asking the BC Legislative Assembly to support a provincial/federal partnership to establish a Guaranteed Livable Basic Income Demonstration Project in BC. This petition has been reviewed by the Office of the Clerk of BC’s Legislature Assembly.

BC Paper petition – Ready for you to use
Requesting an MLA to present your paper petition in the BC Legislative Assembly

When contacting an MLA to present your petition to the Legislative Assembly, you many need to remind them that it is the right of every resident of BC to petition their provincial government. The MLA does not have to agree with the content or call for action in your petition. The MLA, however, is responsible for ensuring that your petition follows all the guidelines and rules as set out in BC’s Standing Order 73, and does not include any disrespectful language or improper requests for action.