The Kind of Days Worth Fighting For

June 8, 2005

Opposition supply days are back! Allow me a few moments of your time to explain why this matters to Canadians.

First, the Liberal government’s decision to refuse opposition parties these supply days was in large part responsible for the recent crisis of confidence in the House of Commons. Why?

Opposition supply days are crucial to free, open and democratic debate. The government, especially a minority one, cannot possibly represent the interests of all Canadians. Supply days are a powerful tool to ensure important issues or policy ideas that the government hasn’t addressed in its legislative agenda can be advanced in Parliament by the opposition parties.

Many supply day motions are non-partisan in nature, often proposed at the request of national associations or other groups.

This week, health advocacy groups across Canada expressed their gratitude to Conservative MPs for our supply motion that called upon the government to fully fund and implement national strategies for cancer, mental health and heart disease.

Also awaiting debate is our motion to update the definition of ‘caregiver’ to ensure access to the federal Compassionate Care benefit is less restrictive. This is an increasingly important measure as our population ages and our healthcare system relies more heavily upon care at home by family and friends.

A Conservative motion seeking to introduce a National Disability Act is designed to promote reasonable access to medical care, equipment, education, employment, transportation and housing for Canadians with disabilities.

Another Conservative motion in the queue aims to address the high incidence of poverty, teen suicide and substance abuse among Canadian aboriginals, and to improve access to healthcare and education, particularly for aboriginal children.

Canada’s recent poor environmental ratings by international organizations, including the United Nations, means Conservative MPs are eager to debate our motion calling upon the government establish a comprehensive environmental vision to provide clean air, land and water with a focus on the development of alternate energy and transitional fuels.

I tabled my own supply day motion proposing to modernize the antiquated Divorce Act based upon the recommendations of the 1998 Senate-House of Commons report For the Sake of the Children, thereby ensuring children have access to both parents through the principle of shared-parenting.

Other Conservative supply day motions propose to make the registry of all convicted sex offenders mandatory and retroactive; to re-direct funds from the Canadian Firearms Centre to the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency; to increase spending for the Canadian Forces; and to increase agricultural producers’ access to international niche markets by providing Canadian processors access to voluntary BSE testing for export certification.

I don’t have room in this space to list all the opposition supply motions which have been introduced. Suffice it to say, they include a wide-variety of credible initiatives worthy of consideration by your elected representatives.

It’s a sad indication of the Liberal government’s disregard for democracy that the Official Opposition had to fight so hard to restore our right to raise these issues on your behalf.

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