The Senate is working quickly through many of the bills that were passed by the House of Commons in recent weeks but one controversial piece of legislation seems to be stalled.
Bill C-311, drafted by NDP MP Bruce Hyer, would require the government to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. It was supported in the Senate by Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell and has been read twice but has since been adjourned in the name of Conservative Senator Richard Neufeld. The legislation cannot move forward until he speaks to it.
Bill C-311 was passed by a vote of 149 to 136 in the House of Commons on May 5 over the objections of the Conservatives who say it establishes impossible goals that do not mesh with their own climate-change plans. The Bloc Quebecois and the Liberals supported it despite indicating that it contained some holes.
Mr. Neufeld said on Wednesday that there has been no organized effort to keep the bill from being passed into law. If it is not addressed before the Senate rises, probably next week, it can always be raised in the fall, he said. “Our chamber has been pretty busy,” said Mr. Neufeld.
But the Liberals say they fear that the Conservatives are stalling until they obtain an absolute majority of Senate seats and can unilaterally kill the legislation - something that is likely to occur in November.
And Mr. Hyer said he has been told by Conservatives that the government has decreed that the bill cannot be passed into law.
“There are a number of Conservative senators who I have met with, who I am not going to identify, who are very sympathetic,” he said, “but they say they are getting tremendous pressure - they are being whipped.”
Mr. Hyer said it would be disappointing and “undemocratic” if the Conservatives killed the bill for what he called ‘ideological” reasons.
“This bill was passed by a majority of the House of Commons on three readings. The number of voters represented by that majority is about two thirds of the people in Canada,” he said, adding that polls have shown that the vast majority of Canadians want to see serious action to prevent climate change.
Bill C-311 would require the government to set regulations to ensure that the for greenhouse-gas reduction are met, to punish polluters who break those regulations, to publish five-year target plans, and to establish independent reviews to ensure government measures reach targets.
“It’s not prescriptive at all. It would be totally within the power of the government to decide how to accomplish the goals of the bill,” said Mr. Hyer.
“At the very least,” he said,” they should give this bill a fair debate, get it into committee, have it roundly debated, if there are other ideas, if there are ways it can be amended, great, let’s get on with it.”
