Federal government poised to bring in second budget bill

OTTAWA — One of the nastiest political brawls of the fall parliamentary sitting is expected to start within days, as the Conservative government has signalled it will table its second budget implementation bill as early as Thursday.

As the government prepares to introduce its next budget bill, it’s also overhauling the senior ranks of the public service in many of its major economic portfolios.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Monday new deputy ministers and other top officials in International Trade, Industry, Treasury Board, Public Works and Government Services, and Transport and Infrastructure. He also named Jean Boivin, currently deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, to a senior position at Finance Canada.

The timing of the personnel changes is intriguing considering the economy is the government’s top priority and a number of major free trade deals are being negotiated, including the Canada-European Union free trade pact and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The Conservative government is also preparing for a major legislative manoeuvre, with an upcoming fall budget implementation bill that’s likely to be another meaty piece of legislation several hundred pages long.

It’s expected to include changes to lucrative pension plans for members of Parliament and senators, as well as reforms to public service pensions.

The Harper government tabled Monday what’s called a ways and means motion, to implement a number of significant personal and corporate tax changes previously announced — many of them in the March federal budget — including on registered disability savings plans, tax relief for businesses and the new pooled registered pension plans.

The move is a parliamentary signal the government is set to introduce, as early as Thursday, its second omnibus bill to implement measures announced in the federal budget.

Among the budget measures not included in the initial bill are promised changes to pension plans for federal employees and parliamentarians, various tax changes and “refocusing” the National Research Council to concentrate more on “demand-driven research” that’s relevant to industry.

Currently, MPs and senators contribute about $11,000 a year each into their own pensions, while taxpayers contribute around $65,000 for each parliamentary pension plan, according to federal data.

The budget proposed changes to the public service pension plan that would, over time, force federal workers to increase their contributions to 50 per cent and equal those of the employer. Comparable changes were also promised to pension contribution rates for parliamentarians.

The reforms could force MPs and senators to pay an additional $25,000 or more annually into their pension plans to get to a 50-50 contribution rate.

The Conservative government is also proposing to increase the normal age of retirement for new federal workers to 65 from the current 60, beginning in 2013, which would affect a number of benefits for civil servants.

NDP House leader Nathan Cullen said he’s bracing for the second half of the budget bill to be tabled on Thursday.

Cullen is hopeful it won’t be another omnibus bill, given the backlash the government faced the last time it crammed dozens of legislative amendments into a single bill last spring. However, he is expecting the worst, believing the government wants to get most of its controversial moves out of the way well before the next federal election, expected in 2015.

“This is the government sort of looking at this as its last window to do the most brutal things before the election cycle starts,” he said. “Governments don’t do their worst in the last year or two of their mandate. They try to get it out (in) the first couple. This is the final sort of stint of that.”

He anticipates the budget will contain more changes to employment insurance and pensions, including reforms to MP pensions — something the NDP is likely to support.

While “skeptical” there are any cuts left to be made on the environmental file given how much was “gutted” in the first part of the budget, he nonetheless expects further changes there.

If it is another omnibus bill, the NDP says it will call for it to be severed and after reading its contents, the Opposition will speak out against elements it deems bad for Canadians.

“And if they try to ram it through Parliament like they did the last time, we’ll do everything we can to try to stop that,” he added.

Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Jason Fekete