3 a.m. procedural move advances law that gives bureaucrats more power to ignore public
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VICTORIA — The New Democrats waited until the witching hour Thursday to squelch a B.C. Conservative effort to delay Bill 9, the government’s controversial legislation to weaken the Freedom of Information Act.
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Government house leader Mike Farnworth terminated a rare all-night debate on the Conservative measure by introducing a time allocation motion shortly before 3 a.m.
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The legislative “guillotine” set the stage for the government to invoke its legislative majority to halt proceedings without further debate or discussion of the merits of either the government legislation or the Conservative delaying action.
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It set the stage for a series of motions.
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The first imposed the cutoff. The second defeated the Conservative motion to “hoist” (delay) Bill 9 until it could be reintroduced in the fall session. The third granted approval in principle to the bill. The fourth cleared the way for the bill to proceed to the committee stage of debate — clause by clause approval. The fifth adjourned the house without further discussion.
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The silenced Conservatives took solace at having outlasted the New Democrats. They figured the NDP used its control of legislature proceedings to extend the debate past midnight, hoping the Opposition would run out of speakers, energy or both.
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In the end, it was the government that blinked, as the Conservatives saw it.
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Farnworth said he brought down the guillotine when he realized that the Conservatives were preparing to introduce a second and maybe a third dilatory motion on Bill 9.
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The government was supported in passing all five motions by independent MLAs Elenore Sturko and Amelia Boultbee.
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The New Democrats did not need their support. With Conservative MLA John Rustad and OneBC leader Dallas Brodie absent, the 46 government MLAs were enough to carry the day on their own.
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Still, it was surprising to see the two independents side with the government on such an obviously undemocratic move — cutting off debate, killing an Opposition motion and imposing the government bill.
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Boultbee had accused the Conservatives of spreading “factual inaccuracies.” She also said “we’re not hearing a lot about why we need a delay of six months,” when it would effectively kill the bill outright.
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Sturko spoke early Thursday to explain that she wanted to move the bill to the committee stage of debate, where it could be examined in greater detail and get her questions answered.
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“It doesn’t mean I am going to vote for it in the final stage,” she told me.
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The Conservatives mounted a strong defence of the move to delay the bill until the fall, leavened here and there with sarcasm.
