The NDP refused to face public scrutiny over contentious changes, including to labour laws, by including them in an omnibus budget bill — one of 39 bills that passed during the government’s first legislative session, the Tories charged Thursday.
Bill 37 — the Budget Implementation and Tax Statutes Amendment Act — was introduced May 6 and includes a good chunk of Premier Wab Kinew’s legislative agenda and measures that have nothing to do with implementing the budget.
“We’re very proud of our legislative agenda and we’re really anxious to get on with the job of governing,” said government house leader Nahanni Fontaine.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
Government house leader Nahanni Fontaine: “We’re very proud of our legislative agenda.”
The Tories raised the red flag over the budget bill, which was expected to receive royal assent late Thursday.
“We have a lot of concerns about how it’s going to impact Manitobans,” Progressive Conservative finance critic Lauren Stone said Thursday.
Only finance bills do not face scrutiny by a legislative committee, at which the public can raise concerns and other feedback.
In some cases, controversial bills have prompted more than 200 people to register to speak about them.
Both PC and NDP governments have used omnibus budget bills to ram through legislation without public input.
This time, the Tories say the NDP has gone too far.
“These are not just minor amendments that the NDP has made,” Stone told reporters after question period. “These are stand-alone bills that the public should have their say in.”
The budget bill has a provision to double the amount of expenses that political candidates can claim for reimbursement; it creates a seniors advocate; gives cabinet the authority to change the fuel tax and hydro rates; changes the environmental act and tweaks labour laws to favour unions, including a ban on replacement workers in a labour dispute.
“They’ve given themselves sweeping unprecedented powers by doing this,” she said, adding a significant number of businesses had wanted to present their views to a legislative committee.
“This is interference in the economy that the NDP is doing and Manitobans should have had their say on major pieces of legislation.”
She called out changes to the income tax law that claw back the basic personal amount for Manitobans who earn more than $200,000.
“This is a tax on doctors, engineers, small businesses, farmers,” Stone said.
Fontaine said the NDP was blocked by the PCs from introducing the bills that ended up being part of the budget bill.
“We’ve got a job to do and that’s what we did (in teh budget bill),” Fontaine said. “These are things Manitobans have asked for and we are listening. (The PCs) should be doing their job and allowing legislation to go forward.”
When asked Thursday if they’d agree to change house rules to prevent a repeat and ensure Manitobans get a chance to weigh in on proposed legislation in future, Fontaine was non-committal.
The opposition PCs were receptive to change. “I’m looking into right now with the house leader as to what changes can be made to ensure that, in the future, Manitobans do get a say on non-budget bills in (the omnibus bill),” Stone said.
Of the four government bills introduced late in the session this fall, just one — to restrict the sale of machetes — was on track to receive royal assent Thursday.
“It was an important piece of legislation to put through for the safety of Manitobans,” said Wayne Balcaen, the Tory justice critic who is the former Brandon police chief.
Three other bills introduced late in the session did not pass: The City of Winnipeg Charter Amendment and Planning Amendment Act, The Provincial Court Amendment Act, which expands training for judges and judicial justices of the peace to include intimate-partner violence, and the Planning Amendment Act.
The bill on judge training became a political tussle. The PCs and the NDP blamed each other for failing to pass “Keira’s law.”
Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureaux introduced it as a private member’s bill, that passed first and second reading and a committee hearing without amendments.
She was forced to drop it Oct. 30 when the NDP introduced its own similar bill. The PCs offered to support the government version of the bill in exchange for support of their private member’s bill on breast cancer screening, but were denied.
Fontaine said “Kiera’s law” would be reintroduced early in the next session that begins with a throne speech Nov. 19.
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
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