On June 3, BILL C-9 – The Budget Implementation Act - was debated. Alex Atamanenko and other New Democrats argued for the need to extract non-budget items of business for full debate and scrutiny. Read Alex debating here
BACKGROUND TO THE DEBATE:
There are several issues within the Budget Bill C-9- The Budget Implementation Act - that should be extracted for more full debate and scrutiny of Parliament, and allowed to be voted on separately, for the gravity of the issues. Including them in this omnibus bill makes it a Confidence Vote, which if defeated, would trigger an election. Here are some of the provisions buried in the Bill:
On the environment:
The bill will allow the Minister of Environment to avoid environmental assessments on smaller projects under a certain dollar value. There is nothing to avoid larger projects being broken up into smaller pieces.
The bill will exempt a number of projects from environment assessment that are funded by federal infrastructure and other government funds.
The bill will take environmental assessments for energy projects (like pipelines and offshore drilling and the tar sands) away from the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and its expertise, and hand assessments over to The National Energy Board and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, who don’t have a track record in environmental assessments.
Sale of public security & energy asset:
The bill will authorize the sale of the Atomic Energy Canada Ltd. with no debate or public scrutiny.
Canada Post
The bill will move towards privatization of Canada Post by removing Canada Post’s exclusive right to collect Canadian mail destined for delivery in other countries. Many think this is the thin edge of the wedge.
Your public Employment Insurance Fund
The bill will give approval for the draining of the Employment Insurance Account, which held a surplus of $57 billion in premiums paid in over the past decade by workers and businesses.
Here is Alex speaking on some aspects of the bill that will hit the BC Southern Interior Riding
Tags: canada post, EI, employment