Senate ignores pleas to kill bill
Tanker ban that no one wants edges forward
What a country. Or, to put it another way: What? A country?
On Thursday evening, the full Senate refused to kill Bill C- 48, the so- called Tanker Moratorium, by a whopping margin of 53-38.
That bill forbids export of Alberta petroleum products off B.C.’S north coast. It has been roundly slammed as discriminatory, divisive and dangerous to national unity.
A Senate committee, after months of hearings, testimony and submissions, had recommended that the bill be abandoned.
But now the Senate itself rejects the decision of its own committee. This has only happened six times since 1996, according to Alberta Sen. Doug Black.
Four Alberta senators voted to kill C- 48: Black, Scott Tannas, Elaine Mccoy and Paula Simons.
Two Albertans voted in favour of the bill: Grant Mitchell, former leader of the Alberta provincial Liberals; and recent appointee Patti Laboucane-benson.
Simons, whose dramatic earlier vote tipped the committee against Bill C- 48, says some senators were uncomfortable with a committee killing a piece of government legislation.
They want full Senate debate, amendments and then third reading.
But as Sen. Black says, “there is no making this right. There is no solution for Alberta except to kill it. This is just so frustrating.”
That C- 48 is poison in any form is also the view of UCP Premier Jason Kenney; and before him, NDP premier Rachel Notley.
“Toss C- 48 in the garbage where it belongs,” she told the Senate committee via video link.
This is not a partisan issue within Alberta, but it certainly is on the national stage.
“For the Senate to overrule that committee is very disappointing — maddening,” Alberta Energy Minis
ter Sonya Savage said.
“You had a committee that went around the country and heard from experts. And the committee itself became expert. They gave reasoned consideration and came to the conclusion that the bill should be killed.
“There’s some who might want to fix it. But you can’t fix that bill. There is no pathway to make Bill C-48 work.”
Savage says Alberta will file a constitutional challenge if the bill goes ahead.
“That bill is directly aimed at Alberta, it’s discriminatory. It land- locks us from getting our products to market. We are going to get very loud and noisy with a number of other provinces and industry associations and Indigenous groups (who oppose the bill).”
Savage still feels the best solution is the death of C- 48 at the hands of the full Senate.
In the vast writhing nest of Ottawa’s procedural possibilities, there is a chance it could happen.
Simons says she’s now working on possible amendments with some other senators.
But if the premise is inherently flawed — the notion that Ottawa can intentionally land- lock a province’s resources — why try to tinker with it?
Well, some senators who propose amendments may not want them to pass at all. Rather, they’ll be trying to run out the clock until the Senate adjourns for the summer.
Bill C- 48 would then die on the order paper and be no issue in the election.
There’s also a background sense that the Trudeau Liberals won’t go to the wall for C- 48. Even though it was never a priority, it’s now an eternal dark cloud on the western horizon.
They are also ready to approve the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion within weeks.
After paying $ 4.5 billion for that honour, do they really want Kenney and his allies using C-48 to snatch back all the good will?
There’s also the strange fact that Bill C-48 isn’t about anything specific.
No current, active pipeline proposal exists for the north coast. Even if one were approved, we wouldn’t see a northern line for a decade or more.