PM slaps moratorium on Senate appointments
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is slapping a moratorium on new Senate appointments just weeks before a federal election campaign, looking to shore up his party’s position on the file and force provinces into accepting reforms or abolition for the scandal-plagued upper chamber.
Harper threw down the gauntlet to the provinces on Senate reform in a move that is also designed to help the Conservatives win over voters and insulate the party from mounting criticism on an issue that has become a massive political headache for the government.
Harper announced Friday he will not appoint senators to a 105-seat red chamber that already has 22 vacancies as long as the government can continue passing legislation.
He said that refusing to appoint senators will save taxpayers money and hopefully pressure provinces to finally accept significant changes to the upper chamber.
“We will have a moratorium on further Senate appointments,” Harper told reporters in Regina at a news conference with Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, who favours abolition.
“It will force the provinces, over time, who as you know have been resistant to any reforms in most cases, to either come up with a plan of comprehensive reform or to conclude that the only way to deal with the status quo is abolition. So that is the path we’re going to take.”
The prime minister said Canadians are divided on whether to reform or abolish the Senate, but they will not accept the status quo.
Harper noted he has not appointed a senator for more than two years, and said Canadians don’t seem to have noticed.
“Other than some voices in the Senate, and some people who want to be appointed to the Senate, no one is going to complain,” Harper said. “I think that’s going to put increased pressure on the provinces.”
“They’ve got a chance, the ball is in their court. They can now propose reforms,” Harper added.
“In the meantime, the membership in the Senate is going to continue to shrink and Canadians are going to ask the question, ‘If you don’t have a program for reform, and we’re not missing the senators, why not just abolish it?’ And I think that’s the pressure that’s going to rise.”
The Conservatives currently hold 47 seats in the 105-seat chamber, with the Senate Liberals holding 29 seats. There are also seven Independent senators along with the 22 vacant seats. Harper has appointed 59 senators to the upper chamber since taking power in 2006.
The Saskatchewan premier — whose government would have liked to see “meaningful reform” such as a Triple E Senate that is elected, equal and effective — believes such reform is unattainable and that the chamber should be abolished.
Canadians are slowly being left with a reality that they’ll have a “Triple U” senate for the foreseeable future — “unelected, unaccountable and under investigation,” Wall said.
“If we simply can’t come to an agreement on how this thing can be meaningfully reformed, then surely we must be able to decide that in 2015, this country, the modern democracy that it is, ought not to provide decision-making authority to an appointed body, however it’s constituted. That doesn’t make any sense. So it will be up to premiers, I think, to respond to this now,” Wall said.
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair vows an NDP government would launch constitutional negotiations with the provinces to try to kill the Senate. “Harper had 10 years to fix the Senate. He failed,” the NDP said Friday in a news release. “Stephen Harper is part of the problem and is the reason why Canadians want change.”
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau booted all 32 Liberal senators from the party’s national caucus early last year and is now calling for a blue-chip advisory panel to recommend qualified, non-partisan members to the upper chamber.
Constitutional scholar John Whyte said that, by continuing his no-appointments policy, Harper is “passing the buck” to the premiers, whose political situations don’t “leave them able to change” their stands on Senate reform.
Harper’s government had initially proposed Senate elections in the provinces and term limits for senators, in an effort to democratize the chamber and bring it more legitimacy. The prime minister promised to appoint senators from a list of nominees chosen by provincial voters, as he has done with a handful of appointments from Alberta.
In 2013, the Conservative government sought clarity from the country’s top court on Senate reform, referring the matter to the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of limiting Senate terms to eight, nine or 10 years; how to go about electing senators; and potential options for abolishing the Senate, among other items.
The Supreme Court, in its ruling last year, slammed the door on that approach, saying the federal government needs the agreement of seven provinces with half the country’s population to move on even modest reforms like term limits and Senate elections in the provinces.
The top court said that abolishing the Senate requires the unanimous agreement of all provinces, the support of the House of Commons — and backing from the upper chamber itself.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court also said the upper chamber’s powers and number of senators are entrenched in the Constitution, so the Senate can’t be indirectly eliminated by refusing to appoint senators or, as the NDP has suggested, defunding the institution.
“Significant reform and abolition are off the table,” Harper said after the 2014 top court ruling. At the time, he called it a “decision for the status quo.”
Aniz Alani, a Vancouver lawyer who has launched a legal case against the government over Harper’s decision not to appoint senators, has argued that the vacancies violate the Constitution.
“We know in absolute terms that the Governor General is supposed to fill vacancies when they happen,” he said. “We also know from the constitution that it sets out there are supposed to be 105 senators. Not a maximum of 105, but 105.”
The case had been partially hampered by the court’s inability to determine whether Harper had officially decided on a moratorium, Alani said. Friday’s announcement clears up that question. However, it’s unlikely the case will be heard and a ruling made before October’s federal election.
Federal prosecutors had asked the court to dismiss Alani’s case, but were rejected in May. Alani then asked the court to expedite the proceedings so the case could be heard through the summer, but that was also rejected.
Alani said he doesn’t know yet what impact Friday’s announcement would have on the case.
Former Alberta Liberal senator Tommy Banks said the Senate has written more than a dozen reports about reforming the appointment process, but the Conservative government, and its predecessors, have not acted on them.
“Because everyone is terrified about going into a federal-provincial conference with constitutional matters on the table. Those things are very unpopular with prime ministers,” said Banks, whose term ended in 2011.
Another former Alberta senator, Douglas Roche, said Harper’s actions would be a “death by 1,000 cuts” for the Senate.
“This is not a way to get the best out of the Senate by having the numbers so decreased that they’re running around trying to fill all of the holes. It is not a rational approach to the well-being of the country,” said Roche, who sat as a Conservative MP and an Independent senator.
Harper’s moratorium comes with a federal election campaign just weeks away, and amid continued controversy in an upper chamber facing one of the biggest crises in its existence.
The moratorium announcement also comes in the middle of the trial of suspended senator and former Conservative Mike Duffy, who faces 31 charges, including fraud, breach of trust and bribery related to alleged improper Senate expense claims and a move by Harper’s then-chief of staff to repay them.
Along with Duffy, former Conservative senators Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau are also suspended without pay. Brazeau faces charges of fraud and breach of trust related to his Senate living expenses, while Wallin is being investigated by the Mounties over her Senate travel expenses. Retired Liberal senator Mac Harb also faces fraud charges.
Moreover, a scathing report last month from the federal auditor general flagged 30 senators for problematic or questionable expense claims totalling almost $1 million, including nine current and former senators whose files have been referred to the RCMP.
Of those nine, two are sitting senators: former Conservative Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu (who recently resigned from the Tory caucus) and Senate Liberal Colin Kenny.
Another group of 21 senators — including Speaker Leo Housakos, Conservative Senate Leader Claude Carignan, and Liberal Senate Leader James Cowan — were named in Auditor General Michael Ferguson’s report for thousands of dollars in questionable spending.
As well, Sen. Don Meredith resigned from the Conservative caucus last month following allegations he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl, and his case has been sent to the Senate ethics officer.
Stephen Harper is part of the problem and is the reason why Canadians want change.