Revised, Jan. 21 — Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent decision to prorogue Parliament has left a number of farming bills on the shelf, including amendments to the Canada Grain Act.
“This move by Stephen Harper has effectively killed 36 pieces of the Conservative government’s own legislation, which will now have to get through the House procedures all over again,” NDP agriculture critic Alex Atamanenko, a B.C. MP, said in a recent release.
Among those are Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz’s planned amendments to the Canada Grain Act that would end the requirement for inbound inspections at grain terminals, and introduce a new system to compensate grain growers when a grain buyer defaults on payments due.
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In any case, a number of farmer groups, as well as the Canadian Wheat Board, had been calling for revisions to that bill before it’s reintroduced. The CWB, in a recent release, cited “the need to safeguard inward inspection by the Canadian Grain Commission and producer payment security.”
A bill to approve Canada’s proposed free trade agreement with Colombia has also been suspended and will need to be reintroduced in a new session of Parliament scheduled to begin March 3, the CWB noted.
Tabling in Parliament of the CWB’s own financial statements for 2008-09. for instance, has also been delayed until March 3 at the earliest, the board said, noting its own annual report will be released after the statements have been tabled.
“Quietly being stolen”
For his part, the NDP’s Atamanenko noted his own private members’ bill on genetically modified crops, which was due for its first debate on Feb. 3, will now also be postponed until March at the earliest.
“I am concerned that if the government’s current actions should somehow lead to an election call shortly after the House resumes, this important bill may not be debated for quite some time,” he said.
Private members’ bills don’t often pass into law but allow for public debate on issues important to individual MPs.
Writing in the Jan. 14 Manitoba Co-operator, Ottawa correspondent Alex Binkley noted a private members’ bill from Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner of Manitoba, aimed at ending the federal long-gun registry, will have to start over from square one.
However, in a letter to the Co-operator the following week, Hoeppner said her Bill C-391, being a private member’s bill and not government legislation, is reinstated at the same stage where it was before prorogation, and will continue in committee where it was when Parliament recessed.
Atamanenko noted another motion now before the Commons standing committee on agriculture, meant to call for protection of the CWB at the World Trade Organization, has also been stalled.
“The government has refused to challenge language in the current text of the Doha agreement that would see the end of the Canadian Wheat Board by 2013,” he said.
“It is unacceptable that the power to make decisions on the future of this vital Canadian institution is quietly being stolen from our farmers and handed over to foreign governments while the government does nothing.”
Binkley noted another possible casualty of the prorogation may be the Commons ag committee’s study on the competitiveness of Canada’s farmers. Commons committees will have to be recreated when Parliament resumes in March, he wrote.
