Prior
to 2001 the BC legislature sat until it finished its business.
In 2001 Gordon Campbell introduced a parliamentary
calendar which sets a precise number of days for the
legislature to sit each spring and fall. A consequence of
the calendar is time allocation (closure) on government
business to assure that it passes before the date set for
adjournment. The spring session provides for 47 sitting
days spread over 15 weeks; the legislature takes a break
during weeks which include a statutory holiday. The fall
session provides for only 24 sitting days. The idea was
that the shorter fall session would be used to finish business
that was introduced in the spring and allowed to wait until
the fall to allow for public consultation. This year is
different because the fall session follows a provincial
election which was called before the government passed its
"estimates", the budget for each ministry.
Government
will exhaust its spending authority before the end of September
so instead of calling the legislature back to order on the
scheduled date of October 3rd, it will be called sometime
in September to pass an "interim supply bill"
and then debate and pass budgets for each ministry. Speaking
on Voice of BC with host Vaughn Palmer, government house
leader Mike de Jong indicated that the fall sitting would
include a throne speech and a budget. That means there will
also be throne speech debate and budget speech debate. Standing
Order 45a of the legislature provides six days for each
of those almost totally useless debates. During that time
MLAs get up and speak for up to a half hour on any topic
of their choosing, only occasionally commenting on the contents
of the throne speech or budget. Apart from a vote that is
a confidence vote, on the sixth day of both the throne and
budget debates, the debates themselves bring forward little
or no useful information. That is in sharp contrast to the
estimates debates which involve cross examination of ministers
on unpublished details regarding their budgets. If the short
fall session loses 12 days to throne and budget debates,
it would leave only 12 days to fully canvass spending in
all government ministries. Even if government calls the
legislature back in mid-September, there will only be 20
days to do the work that is usually spread over 47 days.
That is not enough time for the 33 member opposition to
complete the work of examining over $32 billion in spending.
In the
spirit of open and honest government and co-operation in
the legislature, the time limits for throne and budget debates
should be waived, reducing the time from six days to just
one. If the legislature is called by September 19th, and
adjournment remains as scheduled for November 24th, 30 sitting
days would then be available for detailed examination of
the budget in estimates debate.
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