Posted on 17 November 2011
Ottawa — Liberal senators are calling on their Conservative counterparts to support a motion that would enable the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry to travel to Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in order to hold public hearings on Bill C-18, An Act to reorganize the Canadian Wheat Board.
On Wednesday, the government introduced a motion seeking to allow the Senate Committee to study the content of the Bill even though it has yet to pass all stages in the House of Commons. Senator Peterson, a Liberal senator from Saskatchewan, then proposed an amendment to the motion in order to also allow the committee to travel to the provinces most affected by this legislation.
“The only logical reason to conduct a pre-study of Bill C-18 is if Conservative senators are truly interested in listening to the views of Western farmers and are prepared to leave the Ottawa bubble to hear them,” stated Senator Peterson.
“In order to understand the true impact of this legislation, we must be prepared to hear from farmers, community leaders, business owners and local grassroots organizations who do not have the means or resources to travel to Ottawa,” added Senator Peterson.
Under Senator Peterson’s proposal, the Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee would travel to all three provinces and conclude its hearings by Friday, December 16th, 2011.
The vote on the proposed amendment will take place today at 5:30 p.m.
The motion as amended reads as follows:
That, in accordance with rule 74(1), the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry be authorized to examine the subject-matter of Bill C-18, An Act to reorganize the Canadian Wheat Board and to make consequential and related amendments to certain Acts, introduced in the House of Commons on October 18, 2011, in advance of the said bill coming before the Senate; and that the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry hold public hearings on the subject matter of Bill C-18 in the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba between the date of the adoption of this motion and December 16, 2011.
For more information:
Marc Roy
613-947-2798
royma@sen.parl.gc.ca