Jack Aubry, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, November 10, 2006

Amid signs of a possible showdown between the elected House of Commons and the appointed Senate, Treasury Board President John Baird yesterday slammed Liberal senators for "gutting" the federal accountability bill with amendments.

He also promised to quickly restore the altered bill and send it promptly back to the upper chamber.

"It's unfortunate it has taken so long to get this bill passed. I am tremendously disappointed that they've chosen to gut so many parts of it and we are committed to put the meat back on the bone when it comes back to the House of Commons," said Mr. Baird, adding that the other three parties are indicating they will co-operate to expedite the legislation.

Mr. Baird was reacting minutes after the Senate approved about 150 amendments, including 50 technical ones proposed by the government, through late-afternoon voting.

The Liberals hold a sizable majority in the Senate, with 64 seats, while the Conservatives have only 23.

The Liberals approved amendments that increase the maximum political donation from the proposed $1,000 cap by the government to $2,000. The Conservatives have accused the Grits of holding up the bill to maintain the current $5,400 limit for their upcoming political convention.

As well, the Liberal senators have rejected the government's plan to create one ethics commissioner for both Houses rather than continuing to have a separate one for the red chamber.

When asked about a possible deadlock between the two Houses, Mr. Baird criticized the Liberals for dragging out their study of the bill.

"This is where push will come to shove. They didn't need over 140 days to come to a third reading of this bill -- many of it was over disagreements they had going in. We say we can have disagreements, but let's vote on it," said Mr. Baird, who acknowledged some of the more technical amendments would be acceptable.

"And I think the elected House of Commons, democratically elected by the people of Canada, should prevail."

Liberal Senator Joseph Day, in the Opposition's wrap-up speech in the Senate yesterday, defended the Liberals' lengthy study of the bill, saying the senators were only doing their job of sober second thought.

He said the Conservatives had provided the Senate with poor legislation that was drafted in the government's first six weeks by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's "unelected transition team or the campaign workers of the Conservative government."

The Liberal senator said the legislation reflects the government's current culture of distrust that revolves around "naming, blaming and shaming."

"We need to evolve from this culture of distrust to a culture based on honesty and respect. ... The practice of attempting to achieve political gain by questioning the goodwill and trustworthiness of a political colleague, a parliamentary committee or a political party is counter-productive and simply wrong-minded," he said.

But Mr. Baird was quick to jump on Mr. Day's remarks: "Yes, we are blaming the previous government for the sponsorship scandal just like Justice (John) Gomery did. The previous government lowered the ethical bar. They were found guilty by Justice Gomery and they had to repay $1 million back to the government. They were involved in numerous scandals both with respect to mismanagement and corruption and the sad reality is the Liberal Party of Canada hasn't learned a single thing."

But Mr. Day said the Senate's thorough study of the bill was "one of our finest hours."
© The Ottawa Citizen 2006