Budget Bill to inclusive says Hughes
HUGHES CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO SPLIT UP TROUBLING OMNIBUS BILL
Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing, NDP MP Carol Hughes
OTTAWA, ON – Algoma-Manitoulin-Kapuskasing MP Carol Hughes delivered a speech in the House of Commons yesterday calling on members to vote against the Conservative government’s sweeping budget implementation bill.
“To put it simply, this bill resembles some of the overly political, opportunistic, pork-laden legislation that was a hallmark of the Bush administration,” said Hughes in her speech Thursday morning. “With over 800 pages, 23 separate sections, and over 2,000 individual clauses, C-9 has easily become one of the largest pieces of individual legislation ever to pass through these halls.”
Hughes took aim at a number of problems found within the budget implementation bill, including a clause that would give the Minister of Environment the authority to forego environmental assessment for federally-funded infrastructure projects, another that would allow the sell-off of Atomic Energy Canada Ltd., and still another that could lead to the privatization of Canada Post.
“I know that in my riding we are very worried about the weakening of Canada Post,” Hughes stated. “Again, we see the mantra of ‘business first’ and are being told that a company can provide overseas service more efficiently and make a profit at the same time. How is that possible, Mr. Speaker? To us, this is merely coded language that adds up to paying workers less and demanding that they do more. Efficiency is a good and desirable thing, but hording wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people is not.”
Hughes also noted that C-9 would gut the $57 billion EI surplus, stating that this was money earned by, and owed to, the workers who built the surplus.
C-9 has been controversial even among some Conservatives. Hughes noted that Conservative senator Lowell Murray had stated ““no self-respecting or Parliament-respecting MP or senator should allow C-9 to go through as it is.”
