Gloria Galloway Globe and Mail Update Posted on
The Conservatives have used their clout in the Senate stacked by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to kill an NDP climate change bill that was passed by a majority of the House of Commons.Without any debate in the Red Chamber, Conservative senators caught their Liberal and unelected counterparts off-guard on Tuesday by calling a snap vote on Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act introduced by Bruce Hyer, a New Democrat who represents Thunder Bay-Superior North in the House.It is the first time that the unelected Conservative senators have used their near-majority to kill a bill passed by elected politicians. The absence of more than 15 Liberals from the Senate allowed the bill to be defeated by a margin of 43 to 32. “Stephen Harper has done what he always promised never to do: use unelected officials to counter the will of Parliament and the Canadian public. The Climate Change Accountability Act had won the support of a majority of Members of Parliament, not once but twice, at a time when the majority of Canadians are demanding stronger action on climate change in Canada.,” Graham Saul, Executive Director of Climate Action Network Canada, said in a statement.“Despite this, government Senators voted the bill down before even taking the time to debate or consider it. This is both irresponsible and unprecedented.” The bill had required the federal government set regulations to bring greenhouse gas emissions 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and to set a long-term target to bring emissions 80 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050.
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