Minister Cannon Disappointed with C-37 Progress

Le Droit posted a story on Bill C-37, the bill that aims to bring better protection to Gatineau Park as well as adjust governance of the NCC.

Here is an English translation of the article (disclosure – this translation provided to GuideGatineau by Jean-Paul Murray):

“NCC Legislation: Cannon’s Bill Seriously Revised,” by Patrice Gaudreault, Le Droit, December 23, 2009, p. 6.

Photo caption: The bill sponsored by MP Lawrence Cannon was supposed to provide better protection for Gatineau Park, but it also affects the National Capital Commission’s administration, which is delaying its adoption.

The National Capital Commission (NCC) bill isn’t enjoying the degree of unanimity its sponsor, federal minister Lawrence Cannon, would have hoped for. No fewer than forty or so amendments have been tabled before a parliamentary committee, with a third of them coming from Conservative benches.

“Some people’s first reaction would be to say the government’s position hadn’t been clearly thought out, but I’m among those more inclined to believe the committee process showed the government just how badly major changes are needed,” said Conservative Senator Pierre Claude Nolin in the Upper House last week, weighing his words very carefully.

Introduced last June 9, Bill C-37 provides increased protection for Gatineau Park, along with a slew of measures affecting NCC governance. The legislation is currently under the magnifying glass of the Commons Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, whose members include MPs Marcel Proulx (Hull-Aylmer), Richard Nadeau (Gatineau), Mario Laframboise (Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel) and Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa-Vanier).

Last weekend, the minister responsible for the NCC, Lawrence Cannon, confided to this paper he was extremely disappointed over how long it was taking to adopt this legislation. “I really thought this bill would be adopted before the end of the session [...] Yet it’s very simple. Everyone was consulted and everyone agreed.”

The parliamentary committee heard several witnesses, including the bill’s co-sponsor, Minister John Baird. All told, 41 amendments were tabled, notably by the Conservatives (14), the Bloc (14), the Liberals (8) and the NDP (5). According to MP Marcel Proulx, the bill cuts such a wide swath that it was unthinkable for it to pass before year’s end. “It’s far from being strictly a Gatineau Park protection bill,” he says. “It reforms NCC governance, which opens up all kinds of doors.”

Gatineau Park Protection Committee Co-chair Jean-Paul Murray is wondering why Minister Cannon “seems to be in the thickest fog” as to why adoption of his bill is being delayed. “To say, as he does, that ‘everyone agreed’ with this measure is utter nonsense, since most groups who spoke on the issue before a Commons committee urged its amendment,” he said.