Kootenay-wide tele-town hall on the HST hits Thursday
By Nelson Daily Staff
Nelson, Castlegar and the Kootenay region will be part of the province-wide call for suggestions on how the HST can be improved when a “tele-town hall” takes place this Thursday.
Running for one hour starting at 6:30 p.m., Minister of Finance Kevin Falcon and Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Blair Lekstrom will engage the West and East Kootenay public only in a regionally-based telephone town hall.
The town hall is designed to ensure that all people in the Kootenays — and across the province in nine other tele-town halls — have an opportunity to offer suggestions on how the HST can be improved.
This is being billed as a unique opportunity to talk directly with the government ministers leading the HST engagement process.
How do you participate?
If you have a publicly listed telephone number, you will receive a call at home in the early evening of the day when your regional telephone town hall is being held.
A recorded message will ask if you are interested in attending the tele-town hall. If you would like to participate, stay on the line and follow the instructions given in the message. If you do not want to participate, just hang up.
If you stay on the call, there may be a short wait until the call formally begins or you will be placed into the town hall if it is already underway.
A moderator will introduce the call, provide the instructions for participation and describe how you can ask a question, then prompt the next caller when it is their turn to ask a question.
Do you have a question?
If you have a question for the host, you will be asked to press a key pad number on your phone after which you will connect to an operator.
The operator will then ask for your first name and what question you would like to ask. (This is done to reduce duplication of questions and to allow the greatest number of callers to participate in the town hall).
Once you have stated your question, the operator will return you to the call so you can continue to listen to the town hall until it is your turn to ask the minister your question.
Listen carefully and when the minister is ready, your line will be opened, the moderator will prompt you and you can ask your question.
After you’ve asked your question, your line will be muted and you can listen to the minister’s response and the remainder of the town hall.
Notes:
• Calls for May 3, 4, 9 and 12 may be moved based on Canucks games.
• Additional day of May 10 currently being held in case calls need to be adjusted.
Comments