But MPs say the government rush on the massive bill—which amends 70 acts and gives the federal government new powers to speed up a massive and controversial project to ship Alberta oilsands bitumen to China and other resource developments—is related more to the 2015 federal election than any pressing fiscal requirement to get the budget legislation through the House before Parliament’s summer adjournment in two weeks.
“They say they’re focused ‘like a laser,’ I say they’re focused like an ‘obsessive mania’ that requires psychiatric help,” Green Party Leader and MP Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) told The Hill Timesafter her groundbreaking attempts, as the sole MP for a political party, to amend the 425-page bill paved the way for a marathon of voting to take place in the Commons beginning Wednesday night.
House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer (Regina-Qu’appelle, Sask.) ruled against an argument from Ms. May that the bill violated House rules because of its sweeping scope, but accepted nearly 300 amendment motions she had tabled in a determined bid to dramatic changes to Canada’s federal assessment and watchdog regime for the environment.
The all-encompassing budget bill, among other things, replaces the Environmental Assessment Act with an entirely new law critics say will benefit and encourage massive oil sands extraction and other resource products, giving the federal cabinet a new power to overrule the National Energy Board if it declines approval for pipelines projects.
Government House Leader Peter Van Loan (York-Simcoe, Ont.) moved a motion on Tuesday to extend the daily sitting hours for the Commons, and his Parliamentary Secretary Tom Lukiwski (Regina Lumsden, Sask.) told The Hill Timesthe government hopes to pass the budget legislation, Bill C-38, through the House by limiting time spent debating it through time allocation.
“We are legislated to get out of here [for the Commons summer recess] on the 22nd of June, so I’m hoping we could get a time allocation for a third reading done this week, dispense of report stage and get third reading and get it to the Senate,” Mr. Lukiwski said.
Even though they have been fighting the bill since it was tabled on April 26, and rushed through the House Finance Committee hearings with little opportunity to probe individual witnesses, opposition MPs said Monday they could not understand the government’s last-minute rush, particularly since the budget delivery date on March 29 was at least two or three weeks later than customary.
Liberal MP David McGuinty (Ottawa South, Ont.) told The Hill Times that Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) has one thing on his mind—the next federal election on Oct. 19, 2015, and an opportunity to use the budget’s sweeping resource development provisions to generate federal revenues, almost guaranteeing elimination of the federal deficit before the next election and paving the way for a raft of income tax cuts to include in the next Conservative election platform.
“They’re trying to pick off the low-hanging fruit,” Mr. McGuinty said. “Harper’s focus on this is to promote his 1950s Daddy Warbucks style. He wants to be seen as the guy who can get things done. They really need this money [from resource development and the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline] to pay off the deficit, and offer enormous tax cuts in the next election.”
Ms. May and NDP MP Megan Leslie (Halifax, N.S.), her party's environment critic, agreed the Northern Gateway project—which was also at the centre of budget measures aimed at limiting political advocacy by charitable environment groups—and other resource projects are central to the government’s plans.
“I mean, there’s no reason to change the Old Age Security rules in such a hurry, since the changes don’t take effect for 30 years,” Ms. May said. “There’s no reason to destroy environmental law this minute, they should take the time to get it right and pull those sections out.”
Ms. May said the government faces other obstacles over the Northern Gateway project.
“We’ve only got part of the equation here,” she said. “The people of British Columbia oppose it, First Nations have rights that are really critical, and First Nations all along the pipeline route oppose it.”
“When I saw that Stephen Harper had promised the Communist Peoples Republic of China that the pipeline project, which is really for China’s interest, would be built, when he was in China, I thought, ‘That’s extraordinary’,” Ms. May said.
Ms. Leslie said the federal government also hopes to halt momentum building up in community and local opposition to the Northern Gateway Pipeline project through Northern British Columbia, and a plan for more than 200 supertankers a year arriving in port at Kitimat, B.C., to ship the oilsands bitumen to China.
“The Conservatives know that if they allow the momentum to build, they will be in deeper trouble about this. People will start to understand what it means, spills happen, outside of Calgary this weekend,” said Ms. Leslie. “Those things leave an imprint on people’s consciousness.”
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Tim Naumetz
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