The verbal sparring in Parliament came hours after the Harper government flat-out refused to split up the dense omnibus budget bill, as requested by the Opposition.
Conservative House Leader Peter Van Loan in a news conference Wednesday said the government wants its economic program passed quickly. The NDP continues to contend the bill won’t get the scrutiny it deserves because of its hefty size.
“Canadians will no longer have the right to participate in public hearings. Key independent agencies will be cut out of the process, and ministers will have the power to ignore the facts, ignore the science, and reverse any decision they don’t agree with,” NDP leader Thomas Mulcair said in the House of Commons, about the environmental legislation in the bill.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper called Mr. Mulcair’s statement “completely false.”
“The fact of the matter is that as part of the government’s Economic Action Plan … we are streamlining the environmental assessment process,” he said. “It will be extremely thorough, Mr. Speaker, it will be for major projects up to two years.”
The process should be detailed, Mr. Harper said, but the point should be to ultimately give some projects approval.
Mr. Mulcair then veered away from environmental concerns and focused on the bill’s plan to scrap the Commission on Public Appointments.
The Conservatives created the public appointments commission soon after coming to office in 2006. Its goal was to oversee the process of appointing Canadians to boards and agencies, such as the Employment Insurance Board of Referees, and avoid political involvement in the process.
Mr. Mulcair admonished Mr. Harper for getting rid of the commission that was supposed to ensure fairness.
“The Prime Minister has never kept his word,” Mr. Mulcair said. “Why is the Prime Minister hiding the abandonment of a promise on accountability within a budget bill?”
Mr. Harper then said the NDP voted against the establishment of the commission, although Mr. Mulcair said the Prime Minister got his facts wrong.
Later in Question Period, interim Liberal party leader Bob Rae pressed Mr. Harper to explain the comments made by environment minister Peter Kent, who has repeatedly accused Canadian charities of “money laundering” foreign funds.
Opposition MPs have accused the Tories of targeting charities with political motivations that don’t match their own.
“Given the fact that the Canada Revenue Agency is supposed to be politically neutral. It’s not supposed to be a political arm of the Conservative Party of Canada or of the Government of Canada,” he said.
“It’s supposed to be objective and confidential. Does the Prime Minister not realize that the kinds of comments made by his minister in fact point to a political campaign against a number of registered charities which the government simply doesn’t like?”
“The Canada Revenue Agency is independent of the government and is tasked with enforcing the law,” Mr. Harper said.
Those laws are “crystal clear,” he said.
Original Article
Source: national post
Author: Allison Cross
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