Josh Dehaas: Carney asks Parliament to give him the power of a king

Back on Jan. 6 of this year, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau informed us that he would ask the Governor General to prorogue Parliament until March 24, so that the Liberal party could find a new leader. The governor general agreed, and MPs were sent packing.

We got a new prime minister on March 9, and Mark Carney was confirmed in an election on April 28. Yet Parliament didn’t resume until May 26. By the time Parliament returned — five months into the year — we were told there simply wasn’t time to do a budget. Instead, Parliament passed Bill C-5, which allows the Carney government to pick projects of “national interest” and exempt them from all but a short list of Parliament’s own laws. After just a few weeks, MPs went home for the summer.

We finally got the budget on Nov 4. After narrowly surviving a confidence vote on Nov. 18, the Liberals informed us that the budget bill will actually include yet another measure that would sideline Parliament’s functions, concentrating even more power in the prime minister and his cabinet. Section 12 of the Bill C-15 would allow the minister to exempt any individual, business or other organization from any existing law or regulation other than the Criminal Code, for up to six years, with few limits. This means Prime Minister Carney and his ministers could get to act like dictators, greenlighting exemptions to Parliament’s laws for their friends whenever convenient. Parliamentarians may not want an election right now, but they could come to regret voting in favour of a bill that further sidelines their work.

Section 12 says ministers would be allowed to create exemptions to any law except for the Criminal Code so long as they say the exemptions are in the public interest, would enable goals like “testing a new regulatory regime” aimed at “innovation, competitiveness or economic growth,” have benefits that outweigh the risks, and come with measures will be taken to protect health, safety and the environment.

Unlike most orders and regulations, which must be published in the Canada Gazette within 30 days, the minister would only be required to notify the public “as soon as feasible.” The minister would be allowed to keep secret information about the order that they decide would be “inappropriate” to make public.

This means the government could enter into contracts with individuals in situations where doing so would otherwise violate the Conflict of Interest Act, and not ever tell us the details. It means citizens and journalists get blocked from seeking documents under the Access to Information Act. It means mining companies may be able to avoid their obligations to prevent corruption under the Extractive Sector Transparency Measures Act. And it could create all kinds of regulatory goodies for ministers to reward preferred companies by letting them avoid environmental regulations while their competitors can’t.

An even bigger problem with section 12 than the obvious risk of corruption it creates is that it would allow ministers to avoid the necessary work of convincing Parliament that bad laws need to be amended. There’s no question that there are laws and regulations on the books that stand in the way of progress and development, but the solution is for Parliament to actually sit in Ottawa and figure out how to fix them.

For example, rather than exempting preferred projects from Ottawa’s onerous Impact Assessment Act legislation, why not work out how to fix it so that all companies can compete on a level playing field while still protecting the environment and respecting Indigenous rights? The cynic will suggest it’s because Carney and his cabinet would rather give itself the power of picking whose lucrative proposals move forward and whose don’t than actually fixing what’s broken.

In a democracy, ministers shouldn’t be deciding that any individual or company should get a free pass from the laws. That’s really not much different than being ruled by a king or a dictator. We send MPs to Ottawa to represent our interests by ensure that laws are fair, necessary, and broadly responsive to Canadians’ needs.

Parliament, including the Conservatives, will be tempted to pass this budget implementation bill to avoid an election, but they should think carefully about whether they really want to accept giving the executive even more power. Hasn’t Parliament been sidelined enough?

National Post

Josh Dehaas is counsel with the Canadian Constitution Foundation.