A Liberal backbencher is condemning his own government's attempt to fast-track debate on legislation that would give cabinet sweeping powers to approve industrial projects, calling it an attack on parliamentary democracy, reports Blacklock’s Reporter.Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith criticized the Prime Minister's Office for imposing strict time limits on debate over Bill C-5, while the Prime Minister was away attending G7 meetings."We should improve the bill and respect democratic participation as we do so," said Erskine-Smith. "First, we should welcome greater parliamentary and civil society scrutiny. The government's proposed guillotine motion seeks to limit parliamentary debate at every stage of the bill.""More concerning, it will jam all expert and public testimony and all committee scrutiny in less than two days," said Erskine-Smith. "For what?".The legislation, formally known as An Act to Enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act, would authorize cabinet to expedite approval of industrial projects deemed to be "in the national interest." Under Section 5.6 of the proposed law, cabinet may "consider any factor" when making such determinations.Cabinet has imposed a Friday midnight deadline for Parliament to pass the bill into law. The former federal housing minister questioned the necessity of the accelerated timeline."Parliament isn't currently scheduled to sit between June 20 and September 15," said Erskine-Smith. "We are rushing legislation through Parliament under the auspices of an urgent threat but we aren't willing to put Parliament to work for, what, an additional week, to get things right?"Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon rejected accusations that cabinet was stifling parliamentary debate. "We're picking up the speed is all," he told MPs.."Canadians are asking this Parliament to act," said MacKinnon. "This government will proceed responsibly, democratically, according to the rules, but it will proceed," he added.Opposition parties joined the criticism, with Conservative MP Kelly Block arguing that cabinet had manufactured urgency around Bill C-5. "This old, tired government creates imperatives with their inaction and then introduces half-empty measures," she said.Conservative MP James Bezan told the Commons the legislation lacked proper scrutiny. "We've only had a few hours of debate on this already," he said. "Liberals are up to their old tricks again, trying to ram through legislation without giving Parliament the opportunity to actually debate this bill.""We know this is not going to help with anything in resource development," said Bezan. "My question to them is, why are Liberals back to their old ways of shutting down debate and undermining democracy?"Bloc Québécois MP Marie-Helen Gaudreau reminded the government that voters denied Liberals a majority mandate in the April 28 election. "A minority government means consultation," she said. "It means going through all the democratic steps. We need to have an opportunity to debate. There are a lot of things we agree with in this bill, but no, we're not cutting a blank cheque here."
