Liberal Rule Changes Would Gut legislature, Says Former House Leader CHRIS MORRIS LEGISLATURE BUREAU FREDERiCtOn • A former Liberal house leader says the New Brunswick legislature might as well be turned into a “bingo hall” because the new Liberal government’s proposed rule changes would reduce sitting days to just nine per year. Kelly Lamrock, a former cabinet minister and house leader in Shawn Graham’s Liberal government and now a member of the NDP, said he has crunched the numbers associated with the current administration’s planned overhaul of the legislature and discovered the changes would massively reduce the amount of work that could be done on the floor of the house. “You might as well rent the legislature out as a bingo hall, to borrow that old phrase from Preston Manning” Lam-rock said, referring to a remark the former Reform leader once made about Stornoway in Ottawa. “If you do the math on it, it will reduce the legislature to just nine sitting days a year. We would be unprecedented in North America for lack of legislative oversight” The Liberals are proposing 31 amendments to the legislature’s rules that would have the effect of reducing the amount of sitting days each session. The proposed changes do not say exactly how much time would be trimmed from the legislative calendar, but the Opposition Tories have estimated it at roughly two or three weeks – at least. “We estimate we could be looking two or three weeks, or more” said Opposition Leader Bruce Fitch. “The reduction in the number of days is one of the big concerns for us” The proposed changes to the conduct of business in the people’s house – as the legislature often is called – has become a subject of hot debate in the House. Tourism Minister Bill Fraser is defending the amendments as necessary to modernize and streamline the legislative process. “We have been very clear that we have a commitment to having a more effective and modern legislature,” Fraser told the house during question period on Friday. “It has been part of our platform” But Lamrock said he does not understand where the modernization push is coming from, especially looking at other legislatures. “The question is who is doing it this way? Who else is meeting nine days a year? By that strategy, I guess (North Korea’s) Kim Jong-Un is the most modern leader we have today” Lamrock said that according to his research, New Brunswick averaged 50.8 sitting days during the past six years. That already is one of the lowest numbers in Canada – ahead of only Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta and Prince Edward Island. He said the big change under the Liberal amendments is the proposal to move budget estimates and the study of bills from the floor of the legislature to small committees outside the house. The committees are only for MLAs – the premier and cabinet ministers do not have to attend. “Estimates are capped at 80 hours, and the opposition has tended to use it all. On average, there are 66 bills a year, for which we will use the reasonable assumption of one hour of committee study per bill” Lamrock said, explaining his calculations. “So that’s 146 hours of work moved outside the legislature” Lamrock said when you further deduct ceremonial days when normal business is not carried out – such as throne speech day and budget day – and some other proposed reductions, it crunches down to nine sitting days. “It is offensive,” Lamrock said. “You hear the government saying, ‘Well, it is efficient’ But you don’t judge democracy only by efficiency” The Liberals contend the changes are long overdue. “There are countless documents on legislative reform that were not acted upon when they (the Tories) had a chance while they were in government for four years” Fraser told the legislature. “One of the main recommendations of the reform commission was to strengthen the role and resources of legislative committees in policymaking and legislative review. A number of reports were done. It is now time for action. They had four years to get it done. They did not get it done. We intend to get it done” The Tories say that the proposed changes are designed primarily to protect the thin Liberal majority in the legislature. “It’s very clear that this has nothing to do with modernizing the rules” said Tory MLA Jody Carr said. “This has got to do with power running from the premier’s office to accommodate a slim majority and to remove their decisions from further scrutiny of the public and scrutiny of the opposition” The standings in the legislature are 26 Liberals, 22 Progressive Conservatives and one Green MLA. The Tories are appealing to the government to allow more time for study and debate on the issue because the proposed changes are the most sweeping in over a generation. “This is about respecting democracy,” said Tory MLA Trevor Holder. “As Shakespeare would say, there is something rotten here, but it is not in Denmark. It is in New Brunswick. What is the rush? Why the shotgun wedding? … All we are asking is that, before the spring session, we do the right thing, take our time, and do this right”
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 13:58:30 +0000
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