A key piece of the Carney government’s economic agenda, Bill C-39, passed its first vote in the House of Commons Thursday when Conservatives voted with the majority Liberals to send the bill for study by a special committee.
The 243-page bill proposes to extend the government’s one-project, one-review, within one-year approach to major infrastructure projects to apply to other projects across the country.
It won’t include representation from the NDP, which does not have official party status in the House of Commons, a requirement for automatic inclusion on standing committees.
NDP House leader Don Davies said he asked the government to allow his party to participate in the committee but Government House leader Steven MacKinnon turned him down, a move Davies called “fundamentally undemocratic.”
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said she also asked for committee standing but was denied.
She said the bill is the “omnibus of omnibuses” and threatens to trample the environment in order to build things quickly.
15·7 days ago