Discussion · Government Orders
Dan Albas Conservative
“I oppose this bill. It gives ministers too much power to ignore major laws and removes the time limits on those powers.”
“Mr. Speaker, these are important issues for our country and to the member’s area. In Bill C-39, we see an increase in the bureaucracy in section 2. We see that the Liberals want more discretionary powers given to ministers, and so powers going from the legislative branch to the executive and even some very wide-reaching powers that we agreed to give them on a temporary basis. If members remember, on Bill C-5, the Liberals, at the time when they were accused of grabbing too much power, said, “Oh, we’ll put in a sunset clause for five years.” Well, in Bill C-39, they are removing that and saying that they will only use those large-scale powers to exempt projects from huge, important laws. The only limit now would be the dissolution of Parliament or prorogation of Parliament. Does the member think that the Liberals are being a little too cute by saying, “On those powers, we put in a sunset clause”, and now they are basically taking all that power back again and more?”
Mr. Speaker, these are important issues for our country and to the member’s area. In Bill C-39, we see an increase in the bureaucracy in section 2. We see that the Liberals want more discretionary powers given to ministers, and so powers going from the legislative branch to the executive and even some very wide-reaching powers that we agreed to give them on a temporary basis. If members remember, on Bill C-5, the Liberals, at the time when they were accused of grabbing too much power, said, “Oh, we’ll put in a sunset clause for five years.” Well, in Bill C-39, they are removing that and saying that they will only use those large-scale powers to exempt projects from huge, important laws. The only limit now would be the dissolution of Parliament or prorogation of Parliament. Does the member think that the Liberals are being a little too cute by saying, “On those powers, we put in a sunset clause”, and now they are basically taking all that power back again and more?