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OTTAWA – The leader of the coalition of independent senators said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau must quickly begin changes in the law governing life in Parliament in order to truly fulfill his promise of an independent Senate.
Senator Yuen Pau Woo believes that the Senate will work harder than it did when it was a purely partisan policy.
The number of independent and unaffiliated senators has reached a critical point in the upper house, where they make up more than half of the senators, the majority of whom belong to Woo's independent senators.
Woo hopes the numbers will push him to push the Liberal government to amend the Parliament of Canada Act to formally recognize groups of senators who are not members of the government or the official opposition.
The change would give non-party groups a guarantee of money to spend on research, a time dedicated to discussing laws, the composition of committees, and a role in day-to-day decisions about Senate business – rather existing temporary agreements in place.
Only the government can make the necessary changes to the law because they would affect the funding of senators and the Constitution prohibits the Senate from introducing spending bills, says Woo.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Woo claimed that Trudeau had only half of his promise of an independent upper house – he was appointed non-affiliated senators but did not deal with the processes behind the scenes to consolidate the promised independence. .
When he learned that he was appointed to the Senate, Mr. Woo stated that the Prime Minister had told him that he did not have a road map showing how the upper house could achieve the independence that he promised during the 2015 election campaign.
Woo said the Senate could not chart the roadmap itself unless Trudeau provides senators with the tools to do it – "and he has not done it yet."
"Most of us took it literally and badumed we would develop a roadmap," said Woo.
"I have been in the Senate for two years now and what I have learned is that the roadmap is up to him (Trudeau) to finish the job. He has not finished the job and it is a message that I hope to hear. loud and clear. "
On Tuesday afternoon, the Minister of Democratic Institutions, Karina Gould, told the Senate that she was willing to "accept" the amendments to the Parliament of Canada Act.
"I think it's something that should be done," Gould said. "However, I will leave this decision to honorable senators."
Woo hopes that voters will debate the future of the Senate during the election campaign next year, but in circumstances different from those of 2015, when the shadow of the scandal fueled the promises of Trudeau to review the appointment process.
Instead of political appointments made directly by the Prime Minister – a process denigrated by filling the room with hackers, hangmen and hangmen – Canadians are now free to go to an independent advisory committee, which is reviewing Candidates to the Senate, from which Trudeau fills vacancies in the Upper House.
Conservative senators are blaming the new problem process on the procedural machinations of the upper house. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer has also spoken publicly about returning to the traditional partisan appointment system.
If Scheer won next year's elections, Woo felt it would take him a decade to nominate enough Conservatives to win back a majority in the Senate. He argued that the Liberals and Conservatives must understand how they will manage the block of independent senators who "will not disappear".
"With the higher number of non-Conservative senators, an unreformed Senate could become very difficult to manage unless you take into account the new realities of the Senate," said Woo.
"The real question is that we have a Senate, how do we want it to work, what is the best way to make it work, and the very concrete experience we are currently experiencing is that of the nomination process. independent and non-partisan process, more independent structure. "
The NDP wants to abolish the Senate, but the Supreme Court of Canada has set the bar very high for this possibility: the unanimous agreement of all the provinces.
The group of independent senators has 52 members – half of the 105 seats in the Senate, not including the Speaker. Its members can not be active in any party, but they can be party members.
Woo said his members had a myriad of political views, including on the role of government and the private sector.
"We do not pretend to be monks and nuns," he said.
"We have opinions on politics and it's actually a force of new appointments where people do not come as whites, but they bring their life experience, potentially, including politics and a little political experience. the revision and deliberation of the legislation. "
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