The Conservatives have buried major policy changes, none of which was in their election platform, in a 400-page piece of legislation.
The annual budget bill is intended to implement the government’s financial plans for the year. But the prime minister has chosen to use it to weaken environmental legislation, raise the age of eligibility for Old Age Security and make sweeping changes to employment insurance. The bill amends more than 70 laws.
The strategy is to lump all these and other major initiatives into one massive bill. This serves to minimize public concern by limiting parliamentary debate.
The Conservatives argue that these wholesale changes are in the budget bill because they are needed to drive the economy forward. Stripping away “redundant environmental assessment processes” is necessary to advance resource development. Tightening the employment insurance rules and raising the age eligibility for OAS are essential to reducing the deficit. Canada’s fisheries can be better exploited with less statutory protection and more ministerial discretion.
But the rationale behind this rush to legislate is difficult to understand. Many of the most significant policy changes won’t be implemented until next year — or well beyond. In the case of OAS, age eligibility isn’t proposed to move to 67 years until 2023.
So why try to ram all this policy through now in one 753-clause bill, instead of bringing forward separate pieces of legislation? Changes of this magnitude to pensions, health transfers, immigration, employment insurance and environmental standards are complex and controversial.
Harper seems prepared to take some short-term pain for long-term gain. He sees a few weeks of opposition to one massive bill as politically better than months of debate on half a dozen different pieces of legislation. That this strategy flies in the face of open, transparent and accountable government appears to be of secondary concern.
The Conservatives also hope that most Canadians are already firing-up their barbecues and tuning-out Ottawa for the summer.
While the public seems relatively docile, there have been avenues of opposition. In a rare non-partisan act of defiance, four former federal ministers of fisheries, two Conservative and two Liberal, wrote Harper a stinging letter. They criticized the government for trying to amend the Fisheries Act via omnibus budget legislation in a way they say will seriously weaken habitat protection.
The Atlantic premiers rallied together last week to press Harper for more information on how the EI changes are proposed to work. Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Kathy Dunderdale said the federal government doesn’t understand that programs need to be tailored to various parts of the country. “I think there is a real disconnect between Ottawa and the reality of people’s lives.”
Earlier this month, opposition parties joined a coalition of environmental groups in blacking out their websites to protest the government’s proposed changes to environmental laws. A “Stop the Budget” Facebook campaign is urging Conservative MPs to “call in sick” on the day of the vote.
The New Democrats, Liberals and Green Leader Elizabeth May put forward more than 800 amendments to this “Trojan Horse Bill” in an effort to force the government to remove the “non-budget” sections for separate consideration.
House Speaker Andrew Scheer allowed most of the amendments. But he has grouped them into a maximum of 159 votes, which will probably reduce the marathon debating session from days to 24 hours.
May is expected to become a momentary opposition hero during the filibuster. As an independent member who is not on any parliamentary committees, she is allowed to speak as long as she can stand and deliver.
All this makes for great political theatre and fresh meat for the media. But at best it a delaying tactic. In the end Harper has his majority, and he will exercise it.
He is mindful that a recent one-day protest at MPs’ offices across the country drew only 2,000 people. This isn’t nearly enough to make Harper blink. He will need to see mainstream Canadians objecting en masse this week to his omnibus bill strategy, and to its impact on their social safety nets and the environment.
A nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: R. Michael Warren
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