A serious case of overreach

No one knows how the coronavirus pandemic will unfold. We’re in completely uncharted territory, facing an unprecedented challenge to our health and our prosperity.

At such a moment, trust is vital. We have to trust each other to behave responsibly, and most important of all we must trust our leaders to act with the public good in mind.

The Trudeau government, and the prime minister himself, have done remarkably well on that front. At least they did until Monday evening when they tried to include sweeping new tax-and-spend powers in emergency legislation aimed at rushing out aid to those already hit by the pandemic.

This was an enormous and unjustified overreach. Challenged by the opposition, the government immediately backpedalled. The prime minister dropped the most extreme part of the proposed bill, and promised to “uphold our democratic values … and our democratic institutions.”

That’s fine, but even putting such measures forward chips away at that vital trust.

Canadians are being asked to make big sacrifices to contain the spread of the virus. It’s not just self-isolating at home. Hundreds of thousands are losing their jobs with no idea when life may start to return to normal. Thousands of small businesses may die.

They need to trust the government to focus entirely on fighting the disease and dealing with the economic fallout. Any suggestion that it might seek political advantage is both offensive and dangerous to the solidarity needed for success.

The opposition parties, too, need to trust that the government isn’t out to manipulate the situation for partisan gain. Canadians have no appetite these days for the usual political antics, and that cuts both ways.

The opposition must not unnecessarily block or delay action to fight the pandemic. And the government must focus on the public interest, not outsmarting its opponents.

This goes against the grain of our political system. But if ever there was a time for all politicians to work together, and be seen to be doing so, this is it. Canadians should watch carefully who rises to the challenge, and who fails. And vote accordingly in the future.

The most offensive measure the government attached to its aid package would have given it the power to raise, lower or alter taxes, without any reference to Parliament, right through until the end of next year — fully 21 months from now.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer labelled that a “power grab,” and so it would be. There’s no reason for any government to arrogate such powers to itself, and certainly not for so long, based on what we know about the threat posed by the coronavirus.

Trudeau was right to drop that from the aid bill that Parliament was due to debate on Tuesday, but the politicians were still wrangling behind closed doors on other measures.

Whatever the outcome of those negotiations, the principle should be clear.

As Scheer (and many others) have noted, Parliament functioned throughout both world wars. Canada has faced down enormous challenges without throwing its democratic traditions overboard, and it should not break with that now.

The government may well need extraordinary powers to deal with an extraordinary situation. If that’s the case, they should be authorized in such a way that parliamentarians continue to have oversight on the government’s actions.

That’s the principle behind the Emergencies Act, enacted in 1988 to replaced the outmoded War Measures Act. If the Emergencies Act is invoked, Parliament must approve the move and a Commons committee would oversee how it is used.

The idea is to ensure the necessary balance between effective action and respecting democratic institutions, even (indeed, especially) at a time of national emergency.

Disagreements over emergency powers should not get in the way of getting help to Canadians as quickly as possible.

The aid package announced by the government last week, worth some $27 billion in additional spending, should be quickly approved by Parliament.

The opposition has already said it’s prepared to support those measures. And if the opposition has useful suggestions to make it better, the government should be open to improvements. That’s the kind of co-operation Canadians expect to see from their representatives at this time.

Unfortunately, on Tuesday it was being delayed as the government and opposition tried to work out their differences on the issue of emergency powers.

Far better to pass the aid package and start getting money out the door as quickly as possible. Debates over what extra powers the government may need, and the conditions attached to them, can be had another day.

Anxious Canadians will have little patience with unnecessary delay. They can see an example of how not to handle the crisis south of the border, where Republicans and Democrats are waging their usual partisan warfare over a proposed trillion-dollar aid program.

It will take an enormous amount of co-operation between rival parties, different levels of government, and Canadians in all walks of life to get us through this crisis. The last thing we need is an erosion of the trust so important to working together.

The government made a mistake this week on that front. It should walk it back without delay.

The Trudeau government tried to include sweeping new tax-and-spend powers in emergency legislation on Monday