OTTAWA — Opposition MPs are calling Prime Minister Stephen Harper a hypocrite and urging him to follow his own advice on curtailing the use of omnibus bills to pass controversial government legislation.
As the Conservative government prepares to table its second sweeping budget implementation bill, MPs debated a Liberal party motion Tuesday that called for a House of Commons committee to examine what “reasonable limits” should be placed on omnibus legislation and for the committee to report back by December.
The official Opposition NDP, Liberals, Bloc Quebecois and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May all supported the motion, but the Conservative government used its majority in the Commons to defeat it by a vote of 152-131. The prime minister and several ministers weren’t present for the vote.
Opposition members of Parliament noted that Harper, when he was a backbench Reform Party MP in 1994, argued in the Commons against governments using omnibus bills to pass important legislation.
Harper said at the time that the Liberal government’s 21-page omnibus budget implementation bill, which addressed five budget-related measures, should be ruled out of order.
“I would argue that the subject matter of the bill is so diverse that a single vote on the content would put members in conflict with their own principles,” Harper said in 1994. “Dividing the bill into several components would allow members to represent views of their constituents on each of the different components in the bill.”
Nearly two decades and a political lifetime later, the opposition parties said the government’s decision to dump dozens of important policy changes into sweeping budget implementation legislation — including a 425-page bill passed last spring — ignores what Harper pleaded for while in opposition.
The Conservative government is set to introduce a second budget implementation bill within days that is also expected to be several hundred pages long and include a number of important measures, including changes to pension plans for public servants and parliamentarians, among many other measures.
“Parliament has no choice but to debate this question, and yes, of course, we’re going to debate it in a way that demonstrates how two-faced the government has been,” interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae said Tuesday.
“We, in this party, are going to continue to push this point, and if it means embarrassing the government by forcing them to swallow the words of their leader whole, fine, let them swallow the words.”
NDP deputy leader David Christopherson said the Conservatives are “trying to muzzle as much democracy as they can” by using large omnibus bills.
The initial 425-page budget bill passed in the spring sitting gradually raises the eligibility age for Old Age Security, reforms the employment insurance system, overhauls environmental protection and fisheries laws, and expedites natural resource development approvals, while rewriting dozens of laws in the process.
The prime minister on Tuesday defended his government’s use of omnibus bills for implementing budget measures, saying the Conservatives are simply following the example laid out by previous Liberal governments.
“This particular procedure was debated some 20 years ago and decisions were taken at that time. The government is acting within the spirit and letter of those decisions,” Harper said Tuesday in the Commons.
“We are very proud of the fact that we have before this House a very comprehensive economic action plan to which this government is responsible to the House of Commons.”
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Jason Fekete
As the Conservative government prepares to table its second sweeping budget implementation bill, MPs debated a Liberal party motion Tuesday that called for a House of Commons committee to examine what “reasonable limits” should be placed on omnibus legislation and for the committee to report back by December.
The official Opposition NDP, Liberals, Bloc Quebecois and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May all supported the motion, but the Conservative government used its majority in the Commons to defeat it by a vote of 152-131. The prime minister and several ministers weren’t present for the vote.
Opposition members of Parliament noted that Harper, when he was a backbench Reform Party MP in 1994, argued in the Commons against governments using omnibus bills to pass important legislation.
Harper said at the time that the Liberal government’s 21-page omnibus budget implementation bill, which addressed five budget-related measures, should be ruled out of order.
“I would argue that the subject matter of the bill is so diverse that a single vote on the content would put members in conflict with their own principles,” Harper said in 1994. “Dividing the bill into several components would allow members to represent views of their constituents on each of the different components in the bill.”
Nearly two decades and a political lifetime later, the opposition parties said the government’s decision to dump dozens of important policy changes into sweeping budget implementation legislation — including a 425-page bill passed last spring — ignores what Harper pleaded for while in opposition.
The Conservative government is set to introduce a second budget implementation bill within days that is also expected to be several hundred pages long and include a number of important measures, including changes to pension plans for public servants and parliamentarians, among many other measures.
“Parliament has no choice but to debate this question, and yes, of course, we’re going to debate it in a way that demonstrates how two-faced the government has been,” interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae said Tuesday.
“We, in this party, are going to continue to push this point, and if it means embarrassing the government by forcing them to swallow the words of their leader whole, fine, let them swallow the words.”
NDP deputy leader David Christopherson said the Conservatives are “trying to muzzle as much democracy as they can” by using large omnibus bills.
The initial 425-page budget bill passed in the spring sitting gradually raises the eligibility age for Old Age Security, reforms the employment insurance system, overhauls environmental protection and fisheries laws, and expedites natural resource development approvals, while rewriting dozens of laws in the process.
The prime minister on Tuesday defended his government’s use of omnibus bills for implementing budget measures, saying the Conservatives are simply following the example laid out by previous Liberal governments.
“This particular procedure was debated some 20 years ago and decisions were taken at that time. The government is acting within the spirit and letter of those decisions,” Harper said Tuesday in the Commons.
“We are very proud of the fact that we have before this House a very comprehensive economic action plan to which this government is responsible to the House of Commons.”
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Jason Fekete
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