Look whats hiding in the Trojan Horse budget Never before have we seen such a reckless backdoor attempt to change fundamental Canadian laws and close the curtains on transparency. The Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-38, is a massive Trojan Horse of a bill that the Conservatives are trying to ram through Parliament, with little oversight. NDP MPs believe this 425 page bill must be split into segments so we can study it in depth. Unfortunately the Conservatives rejected our constructive proposal, so as your Official Opposition, we launched cross-Canada budget hearingsto hold this government accountable. The omnibus bill which includes 72 separate pieces of legislation, reaches straight into our daily working lives. In Southwestern Ontario people are having a hard time finding work in this economic downturn and weve lived through truly tragic job losses since this government came to power. While the Conservatives say their budget bill is a job creator, it cuts nine times more jobs than it creates and it squanders billions more on the failed Conservative strategy of unrestricted corporate tax cuts. And these corporate tax breaks provide no assurance that any jobs will be created as a result. Bill C-38 also dismantles vital safeguards that previous generations worked hard to build. If you are unfortunate enough to lose your job, the Conservatives can cut off your Employment Insuranceunless you accept any job the Minister deems suitable. People are justifiably alarmed when they learn about the environmental impacts of Bill C-38. The Conservatives are dismantling not just the Kyoto Implementation Act but the Environmental Assessment Act as well. They are gutting Canadas assessment regime for major industrial and energy projects. Most of the responsibility for the environment will be downloaded to provinces. That means national standards will be jeopardized. The seniors of the future are also being told that they must delay retirement to age 67 if they wish to receive Old Age Security. Any suggestion by this government that OAS is not sustainable is completely false. Research prepared at Ottawas request shows that the OAS is sustainable now and in future. The Parliamentary Budget Officer, and former OAS chief government actuary Bernard Dussault, have both confirmed that the age of retirement is sustainable at age 65. Alarm bells are also being triggered by the fact that the government is trying to push these extensive changes through Parliament without proper debate. This is profoundly undemocratic. And the bill itself contains measures that will make this Conservative government even less transparent and accountable to you. C-38 shrinks the power of the Auditor General, whose job is to help hold government to account. It ends independent oversight for 12 key federal agencies, including the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. It de-funds organizations that produce research that may not always support government spinlike the National Council of Welfare and the First Nations Statistical Institute. The Conservatives are doing nothing to improve our frontline health care services. Theyre doing nothing to help provinces modernize services for our aging population. Instead, their budget short-changes provinces of the health care transfers they were expecting, by a whopping $31-billion. At the same time, this budget bill puts our food safety regime at risk. It weakens food and drug regulations at the discretion of the Minister and it paves the way for private contractors to perform food safety inspections. As Canadians we need to fight back against these government abuses and make our voices heard in Ottawa. Together, well make sure the Conservatives know this budget is bad for our neighbours, bad for the region and bad for Canada. Irene Mathyssen MP London – Fanshawe NDP Pensions Critic Submitted by Dorothy Knight on behalf of Irene Mathyssen. This is intended for publication.
Dorothy A. Knight