The vote on a Conservative motion to take the committee in camera to deal with a motion from Liberal MP Marc Garneau (Westmount-Ville Marie, Que.) calling for a review of omnibus legislation, with the goal of establishing new House orders to limit its use, was the last battle in a Parliamentary war that began soon after Finance Minister Jim Flaherty (Oshawa-Whitby, Ont.) tabled his budget implementation bill last April 26.
The 425-page printed version of the bill sparked two months of Commons wrangling and disputes, with the Liberal Party and the NDP furious at the range of sweeping changes contained in one bill, Bill C-38, and the limit the manoeuvre put on the ability of MPs to scrutinize the wide range of measures in the Commons finance committee. The committee had to create a sub-committee to deal with one area alone, controversial, and substantial amendments to federal environmental law and Cabinet’s power over approval of proposed oil and gas pipeline projects.
The government used time allocation to cut short Commons debate at several stages during the standoff, which finally ended when the marathon of voting on more than 800 opposition amendments began shortly after 1 a.m. on June 21, following procedural motions that had begun the previous evening.
The spectacle took place a day before the Commons recessed for a long summer break, following months of acrimony in the first session after last year’s federal election.
The earlier standoffs also featured angry confrontations over a post-election tactic Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) majority government developed of taking Commons committee meetings in camera to settle disputes with the opposition behind closed doors, with no public transcript or record of the confrontations.
Because of in-camera secrecy rules for House committees, neither opposition nor government MPs could disclose what occurred behind the closed doors of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee Thursday, when Mr. Garneau’s motion was defeated, but after the session the motion was no longer on the committee schedule.
NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.) later criticized the government for once again dealing with a key aspect of Commons proceedings in secret, as it has done times since September, 2011.
“Lots, lots more than any government in history,” Mr. Cullen replied when asked how often it has occurred.
Mr. Cullen said about the in-camera manoeuvre on Thursday: “It fits into the pattern and language of these guys; it fits into the culture of this government, which runs away from accountability and being open and transparent. It’s a challenge [for the opposition]; they shut down debate, they shut down committees, they shut down any conversation they don’t like.”
Mr. Cullen said, however, it is the government itself and the public that lose out, not just the opposition parties.
“It makes them a much weaker government,” he said. “Good governments wrestle with ideas and like to be challenged and like the best ideas to win. These guys are so ideological they miss that great gift that is the opposition.”
“The public loses out because you just don’t know what the members actually believe, you don’t know what your representative thinks, because there is just too much shutting down of debates,” Mr. Cullen said.
Conservative MP John Williamson (New Brunswick Southwest, N.B.) told The Hill Timeshe could not discuss what went on in the committee room, but he defended the government’s use of omnibus legislation—which Mr. Flaherty has used four times to pass budget measures through Parliament—and said previous governments have used the tactic.
Mr. Williamson said there is no need for the Commons to review the practice.
“No, I do not, this is practice that has been used by this government and previous governments and I expect it will be used by future governments as well,” said Mr. Williamson, a former communications director in Mr. Harper’s Prime Minister’s Office.
“Certainly there was a lot of information in our recent budget implementation bill, and the opposition certainly made great political hay out of that, but I don’t see any need to change track.”
Mr. Williamson dismissed opposition complaints that MPs are put in a difficult position with large budget bills, because though there may be some elements they support, only one final vote takes place on the entire package.
“That’s nothing new,” Mr. Williamson said. “There were a lot of measures that perhaps the opposition could have supported or might have supported in a different measure, but I think every Member of Parliament when they cast a vote has got to balance what’s in the bill, what they like and what they don’t like.”
Governments, more so the current government than in the past, chide opposition MPs for rejecting certain budget measures as they vote against the entire package in the final vote.
NDP MP Craig Scott (Toronto-Danforth), a member of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee who was first elected to the Commons last March in former and late NDP leader Jack Layton’s Toronto riding, said omnibus bills give the government a political advantage.
“There is a political advantage, if you’re trying to push a lot through and make it very difficult to have serious accountability, it’s as simple as that,” Mr. Scott said.
He said Parliament’s ability to closely scrutinize legislation suffers.
“It’s really important to recognize that as with many things, this has a slippery slope,” said Mr. Scott. “You can imagine this becoming a relatively standard form, with more and more things being lumped into less and less so that the role of Parliament really becomes one of tackling less and less accessible pieces of legislation, as opposed to providing quality scrutiny of many pieces of legislation.”
Despite Mr. Williamson’s position, the opposition has repeatedly pointed out during the omnibus dispute that Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.), then a Reform Party MP, vigorously opposed a Liberal government omnibus bill finance minister Paul Martin used to implement a budget in 1994.
At the time, however, then Liberal MP Peter Milliken, a Parliamentary Secretary to Liberal House leader Herb Gray who would go on to become the longest-serving Commons Speaker in Canadian history, argued against Mr. Harper’s complaint. Mr. Milliken noted Mr. Martin’s bill was only 21 pages long.
The term omnibus, with regard to legislation, is used when a bill deals with amendments to several existing laws at the same time, rather than introduction of a bill covering only one area or amendments to a only a few statutes or just one.
During the controversy over Bill C-38, Maclean’s magazine writer Aaron Wherry researched Library of Parliament web archives of budget bills to show that their size has increased substantially under the Conservative governments of Mr. Harper since 2006.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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