For three days, Campbell MLAs ran out the clock with repetitious "debate" over the future of BC Rail; they filibustered their own Bill. The Campbell government is trying to shift the debate from its broken promise not to sell or privatize BC Rail to the question of whether government should run a railway, even though BC governments have run BC Rail since 1918.

The Campbell government broke another promise when it threw out the "fixed legislative calendar" for the supposed purpose of allowing more time to debate Bill 89 which permits the sale; the record in Hansard shows that the real reason was to allow government members to repeat each other with tedious speeches. Usually, the Minister speaks followed by the two members of the Opposition and perhaps one or two backbenchers. In the normal course of managing a Bill through the legislature, committee stage follows second reading debate the next day (or thereafter). Committee is the stage of debate where the Opposition is not limited in how much time it can spend in clause by clause debate.

Second reading (debate in principle) of Bill 89 was first called on Wednesday when the speakers were Minister Judith Reid, Paul Nettleton, Joy MacPhail and Jenny Kwan. On Thursday a rare appearance was made by Premier Campbell, so rare that the government caucus emailed a notice advising people to listen to his remarks. In the morning Pat Bell (Prince George North) spoke on second reading of the Bill followed by Ralph Sultan (West Vancouver-Capilano), Graham Bruce (Cowichan-Ladysmith), Walt Cobb (Cariboo South), Dennis MacKay (Bulkley Valley-Stikine) and Dan Jarvis (North Vancouver-Seymour) (all Campbell Liberals) spoke in favor of the Bill to sell BC Rail. On Thursday afternoon, Campbell spoke in prime time after question period followed by Shirley Bond (Prince Geroge-Mount Robson), Dave Hayer (Surrey-Tynehead) and Kevin Krueger (Kamloops-North Thompson). Government's filibuster of the Bill to sell BC Rail continued on Monday afternoon when it was again called for second reading debate; Bill Belsey (North Coast) led off "debate" followed by John Les (Chilliwack-Sumas), Brian Kerr (Malahat-Juan de Fuca), Rich Coleman (Fort Langley-Aldergrove), Rod Viser (North Island), John Wilson (Cariboo North), Roger Harris (Skeena), Harry Bloy (Burquitlam), Geoff Plant (Richmond-Steveston), Val Roddick (Delta South), Rick Thorpe (Okanagan-Westside), Berry Penner (Chilliwack-Kent), and Blair Lekstrom (Peace River South). Judith Reid, the Minister nominally responsible for the Bill, wound up second reading debate just before the adjournment for dinner. It would make a wonderful question in a game of political trivia to see how many people could identify more than two of the Campbell MLAs who ran out the clock.

In her closing comments, Reid said "CN does not look at this as we have been, simply from a British Columbia point of view. It is a North America point of view." She can say that again! Never again will BC Rail be run for the economic benefit of British Columbia; to do so would be a violation of the responsibility of CN to maximize value for its shareholders. The government built some short term guarantees into the contract with CN to prohibit closing spur lines or increasing rates in the Prince George to Vancouver run for the next five years. If the invisible hand of the market was going to work for the benefit of BC, why would those guarantees be necessary? The existence of the contractual provisions is evidence that left to the market, shippers and communities will be vulnerable.

It is sad day for parliamentary democracy when a government runs out the allotted time on its Bill with repetitive stump speeches while depriving the Opposition the opportunity to use those hours in the next stage of debate, committee stage, to hold the government accountable. They do the same thing when they use puff ball questions from the backbench to run out the clock during question period. Most people have probably never heard the names of the dozens of members of the Campbell caucus who were busy running out the clock, but they can read Hansard to see the names of those members of the government caucus who were willing to participate in what amounts to a loyalty ritual to Campbell as they demonstrated that they care nothing about the words in their book of campaign promises, the New Era Document.

John Les, chair of the government caucus and a rumoured favorite for cabinet if a shuffle ever occurs, said "Given that billion dollars, one of the first things we will be doing is dissolving $500 million worth of debt. Some people have kind of waved that off and said: Well, that's not really that important because B.C. Rail was responsible for that debt. Somehow they try to leave the impression that British Columbia taxpayers were not on the hook for this money eventually." For decades government has distinguished between tax supported debt and the self-financed debt of crown corporations. On Friday, November 26th Finance Minister Gary Collins released his Second Quarter Financial Report. On the first full page after the table of contents it declared that "taxpayer-supported debt" is $30.497 billion compared to total debt of $38.745 billion - guess where the BC rail debt is found! John Les' exercise in fantasy is but one of many such gems that can be found in the pages that record the time government wasted in order to cover its tracks on the biggest broken promise in the New Era.