Harper and the Conservative Government are about to pass a giant omnibus bill. About 30% of this 420-page ”budget bill” is not about the budget at all. There are so many bad things about this bill, here are just some of the awful things.
Environmentally, it eliminates the following without a single minute of consultation with experts:
- Canadian Environmental Assessment Act
- Protection of endangered species and habitats under the Species at Risk Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act
- Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act
- National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy
- Protection for fish habitat by amending the Fisheries Act
The bill also targets Employment Insurance by eliminating he following:
- Fair Wages Act
- Hours of Labour Act
- Old Age Security tribunals
- Canadian Pension Plan tribunals
- Ability to appeal with the Board of Referees for Employment Insurance
- Board of Referees for Employment Insurance (into a one person ”panel”)
- The ability for EI recipients to turn down work that is not suitable due to the field of work, pays less, location, or working conditions.
The bill also dismantles the CSIS Inspector General, the watchdog for CSIS (Canada’s spy agency). The IG had responsibility to investigate and report on the activities of CSIS.
There’s more. Food additives and chemical contamination caps will be approved much faster. The responsibility of inspecting seeds for farmers will be privatized (at the moment the responsibility of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency)
The bill also amends many previous acts and bills, too many to go through. So a quick wrap up of all what this means:
- Really bad for the environment, wildlife, water, First Nation and northern communities.
- No accountability for climate change.
- People on EI have almost no ability to contest decisions and will be forced back into labour at 30% lower wages within on a few days of being on EI
- Retirees also have almost no ability to contest decisions.
- No one is watching and keeping CSIS inline.
- Less accountability for food producers.
