October
18, 2002
No
Time for Debate as Campbell Grabs Power
A legislative
calendar sounds like a nice thing. Under the Campbell government
it is an excuse for limiting legislative debate and automatically
voting on all government Bills on or before the scheduled
date for adjournment.
Few
people seem to know that government has made a major power
grab with the way it interprets the legislative calendar.
In the spring sitting there was much active clause by clause
(3rd reading) debate on the two Bills that radically changed
the welfare system. Government was not providing answers
to how the system would work and who would be hurt. (That
legislation is now being introduced with the expectation
that 10,000 disabled people will be kicked off disability
benefits.) On May 13th, in the midst of the welfare debate,
government introduced three pieces of legislation that the
BC Federation of Labour called an employer bill of rights.
WCB benefits were cut, labour standards were lowered and
it was made easier for employers to resist union organizing.
On May 15 the government house leader, Gary Collins, announced
that those Bills and seven others including the welfare
legislation would be considered to be "government business".
That meant that closure, assigning time limits for debate,
would be used to pass the Bills by May 30th.
Providing
two weeks from the time contentious legislation is introduced
until the time it is passed by forcing an end to debate
is an abuse. It is an even greater abuse when contentious
legislation is introduced under strict time limits for passage
at the same time that other contentious Bills are being
debated. The Campbell government resolved the problem by
forcing an end to debate and forcing a vote on ten Bills.
That is an abuse of power.
The
abuse of the legislature that was demonstrated by the Campbell
government in May 2002 will be the standard way of doing
business. On May 27th Gary Collins said: "I rise pursuant
to Standing Order 81.1, which is part of our new fixed legislative
calendar that provides for an orderly conclusion of government
business using the procedure of time allocation." In
other words, closure on or before the scheduled adjournment
date will always be used to pass whatever government business
is before the legislature. It used to be the case that the
legislature would sit for additional days if necessary to
conclude debate. Closure becomes more likely when the government
adjourns the legislature early.
October
17, 2002
Government
Health Ads - What documents?
Do
you believe that a government that centralized control of
communications in the Office of the Premier and two months
later ran television ads so as to deal with the public perception
that government doesn't care about health care would have
no records in the Premier's Officer pertaining to those
television ads? If so, we could probably find some sales
people who deal in Florida swampland who would like some
of your time.
My freedom
of information request for the communications plan and method
of evaluation for government's health advertising campaign
has produced (two weeks past the statutory deadline) a reply
saying "Please be advised that the Office of the Premier
has no records that are responsive to your request."
If the
Public Affairs Bureau (part of the Office of the Premier)
has no documents, then it is either mistaken or incompetent.
Before appealing to the Freedom of Information and Protection
of Privacy Commissioner, I wrote to the Director, Information,
Privacy, Security and Records Management in the Office of
the Premier and asked that they look again in the spirit
of the Act so as to find any records related to the television
ads. (Click
here my full letter.)
Is it
any surprise that the government that promised to be open
is now amending the Freedom of Information and Protection
of Privacy Act so as to further restrict access to information?
Unless documents are leaked, government appears willing
to simply deny their existence.
October
15, 2002
Abuse
of Power
Parliamentary
democracy is sometimes described as a dictatorship in which
the public has one day every four or five years when they
can vote. Most observers would agree that more power has
been concentrated in the first minister's office over the
past 25 years, but it doesn't have to be that way. Paul
Martin is campaigning with the promise to do things differently
if he becomes Prime Minister. Gordon Campbell promised this
too; however, events the week before Thanksgiving showed
that to be another broken promise.
The
Campbell government introduced a "legislative calendar"
to provide definite dates when the legislature would sit,
adjourn and take breaks in the spring and fall. Government
also introduced Standing Order 81.1 which provides closure
(cutting off debate and forcing the vote) on "government
business". On May 15th Gary Collins, government House
Leader, rose and announced:
Collins
tried to characterize the use of Standing Order 81.1 as
if there was an agreement with the opposition on the time
allocation. MacPhail responded saying that any agreement
was under duress. Apparently Collins offered alternatives
such as all night sittings for the two opposition members.
Every
day in the first week of this fall session, October 7 -
10, the government adjourned the legislature early. Of a
possible 27 sitting hours, the legislature sat for only
11 hours. Political commentators have criticized the government,
saying that it was not prepared with its new legislation,
but government is guilty of more than not being prepared.
As the result of Standing Order 81.1, closure, Legislation
that is finally introduced will not receive adequate time
for debate before it is forced through on the scheduled
date for adjourning the fall sitting, November 28.
Government
claims that the opposition should have spent more time debating
Bill 47, the Business Corporations Act, while drafters rushed
to complete work on new legislation that they couldn't finish
over the summer. Bill 47 consisted of a few amendments to
a large statute. Instead of introducing those few amendments,
government choose to make it look like a big Bill by reintroducing
the entire Bill. Consequently, it passed quickly after the
handful of changes were debated.
The
government should not evoke closure with Standing Order
81.1 under any circumstances but especially if it cannot
present its full legislative agenda at the beginning of
a session.
One
Bill that government did manage to get on the Order Paper
before the week long Thanksgiving break provided for an
amendment to the Freedom of Information and Protection of
Privacy Act. The amendment allows government to exclude
from disclosure any document that is part of any committee
on which a cabinet minister sits. The amendment gives government
a blank cheque that it can abuse to shut down access to
information. The Information Commissioner wrote "The
amendment's language is not, as I believe it could be, specific
to Government Caucus Committees and committees such as the
Agenda & Priorities Committee. Any temptation to apply
it to committees that would not generally be acknowledged
as Cabinet committees must be resisted."
The
Commissioner previously ruled that documents considered
by Government Caucus Committees were subject to disclosure
under the Act. He was correct to criticize the blank cheque
nature of the amendment for access to information but his
acceptance of legislation that overturned his recent decision
is disappointing. Perhaps the 35% cut government made to
his budget served as a warning for the Commissioner to cool
his comments. Criticism, however, should be focused on the
Campbell government. After promising to be the most open
government in BC's history, Premier Campbell is closing
another door on public access to information. In so doing
he is again moving closer to government as dictatorship
with just one day to vote every four years.
------------------------
For
all of Standing Order 81.1 see http://www.legis.gov.bc.ca/37th3rd/votes/v020213.htm
and scroll down until you see 81.1(1) and 81.1(2). The second
part allows government to impose time allocation if there
is no agreement.
For
the Commissioner's decision that is being overturned by
government see http://www.oipc.bc.ca/orders/Order02-38.pdf
and read paragraphs 78 - 97.
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