Michelle Mungall is a Canadian politician, who represented the Nelson-Creston electoral district Legislative Assembly of British Columbia from 2009 to 2020.
She also led the government through amending several energy, mines and petroleum resource-related acts, including implementing recommendations from a comprehensive review of BC Hydro.
As a member of the official opposition in the 39th and 40th Parliaments she served in various critic and deputy roles at different times, such as on issues relating to social development, advanced education, skills training, and youth.
Mungall was an underdog, with the race expected to be close between the incumbent Progressive Conservative Mary O'Neill and the Liberal challenger Len Bracko.
In 2008, after Nelson-Creston Member of the Legislative Assembly Corky Evans announced he would not seek re-election, Mungall entered the race for the BC NDP nomination.
[26] Three other women contested the nomination: fellow Nelson residents Kim Adamson and Bev LaPointe, as well as Creston small business owner Rhonda Barter.
[33] Mungall's campaign focused on issues surrounding the local economy, independent power producers, and health care.
[34] She took 54% of the vote and won the riding, but her New Democratic Party lost provincially to the BC Liberals who formed a majority government.
[9] In the 39th Parliament, with the New Democrats as the Official Opposition, party leader Carole James assigned Mungall the role of deputy critic to Dawn Black on Advanced Education, where Moira Stilwell was the minister.
[36][37] In 2009, Mungall along with her BCNDP colleagues, community groups and city councillors, put the pressure on the Liberals to back down from planned cuts to funding for programs for survivors of domestic violence.
[38][39] "Literally minutes before Mungall was to speak at a Tuesday news conference, Heed's office dropped a press release saying the government was backing away from the $440,00 cut to programs for family-violence victims - mainly battered, abused and fearful women and children.
"[40] On local issues, Mungall hosted a public meeting on the controversial Glacier-Howser hydroelectric project which was undergoing environmental assessment,[41] which she would later oppose,[42] she delivered a 3,000 signature petition to the legislature advocating for improvements to the Kootenay Lake Hospital[43] and hired an intern from the University of British Columbia to research food security in the Kootenays.
[44] Mungall was a vocal opponent to the proposed Jumbo Glacier Ski Resort[45] and together with her BCNDP colleagues questioned the government on their creation of a town with no population.
[57] In response to the efforts of Mungall and anti-poverty advocates across the province, the BC government announced it was ending the child support clawback as a part of their February 2015 budget.
[62] Mungall fought alongside advocates for people with disabilities to raise the rates and keep the bus pass program[63][64] and the government responded.
In July 2017, Premier John Horgan appointed Mungall to the Executive Council of British Columbia as the Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources.
The Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources Statutes Amendment Act, 2018 to address the rise in orphan wells and bankruptcies in the oil and gas sector;[77][78] and the Oil and Gas Activities Amendment Act, 2018 to implement an equivalency agreement with the federal government regarding upstream methane regulations;[79] the Energy Statutes Amendment Act, 2019 to implement the results of a comprehensive review of BC Hydro and re-instate the BC Utilities Commission's authority over BC Hydro 20 year electricity supply and demand projections;[80] and the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act to mandate that all new light-duty vehicle sales in BC must be zero-emissions vehicles by the year 2040.