What doesn't happen is sometimes as important as what does. On November 24th, the beginning of the last week scheduled for the fall sitting of the legislature, three new Bills were introduced, but legislation on BC Rail was not included. The sale of BC Rail will require enabling legislation. Since the rules of the legislature require a minimum of three days to pass a Bill into law, and since the legislature does not sit on Friday, the BC Rail legislation must be introduced on Tuesday or postponed until February. Rumours abound of a third alternative, extending the fall sitting through the first week of December.

The fixed legislative calendar is able to be "fixed" because closure, sometimes called "time allocation", is used to force the passage of all designated government Bills by the scheduled adjournment date. After the government introduces its last Bill for the session, time allocation takes effect when the government House Leader informs the legislature which Bills will be subject to time limits for debate. That hasn't happened yet, and Tuesday is getting a little late to suddenly announce that the rest of the government's agenda will be forced through by adjournment on Thursday.

With 76 of 79 MLAs, no one should think that an extension of the legislative session has anything to do with inability to manage the agenda. It is more likely related to negotiations between CN and the government over the precise details of the legislation, including a possible indemnity to CN if the sale of almost $1 billion in tax credits fails to gain necessary approval from Canada Customs and Revenue Agency. The sale of those credits means that everyone will have to pay more tax in order to cover the business subsidy for the sale of BC Rail; that makes two broken promises with one deal. If the Campbell government is involved in behind the scenes negotiation on the details of legislation, it should make that public and apologize to the people of BC.

The Budget Transparency and Accountability Act requires that a quarterly report be made public by November 30th, covering the first six months of the fiscal year. That report will likely be released on Friday. Economic indicators released by Statistics Canada and forecasts by the major banks suggest that the Finance Minister's report will contain bad news. An extension of the legislative sitting by a week in order to accommodate CN Rail will not only give more exposure to that scandalous broken promise and back room deal, but it will also give Joy MacPhail and Jenny Kwan the opportunity to use question period to ask Collins about his failed forecasts.

The thought of handling questions from MacPhail and Kwan on failed economic policies as well as on BC Rail, might mean the rumour of extending the session is not true and that BC Rail legislation will be introduced with only three days remaining in the session. If that is the case, there will be no opportunity for public scrutiny and little opportunity for meaningful debate before it is rammed through, together with a half dozen other controversial Bills that have received far too little public scrutiny. In the hands of the Campbell government, the fixed legislative calendar has become a tool for keeping the public out of the public's business. One of the three Bills introduced today was identified as an exposure Bill that will be re-introduced in the spring session. There is no reason why all of the controversial Bills could not be set aside for public debate and re-introduced, amended or dropped for the spring session.