November 5, 1997                                                                                                                               For Immediate Delivery

Breitkreuz Motion Adjourns Debate on CWB Bill
"Poorly drafted amendments are a concern for all parties at Ag. Committee."

Ottawa -- Today, Garry Breitkreuz, M.P. for Yorkton-Melville, accomplished what few opposition Members of Parliament are able to do - his motion to adjourn a meeting of the Standing Committee on Agriculture was passed by a vote of 8 to 6. Breitkreuz was so upset by poorly drafted amendments being considered during clause-by-clause debate of Bill C-4, An Act to amend the Canadian Wheat Board that he moved to adjourn the meeting. "Eight M.P.s, from Reform, Conservatives, NDP, the Bloc and one Liberal all voted for my motion, one or two other Liberals abstained, and the motion carried. Obviously, the majority of Members shared my concerns about the second-rate drafting of amendments." said Breitkreuz.

"At the beginning of the meeting, I advised the Chairman that I wanted to present an amendment to the bill but was unable to do so because the amendment was not properly drafted by the Legislative Counsel Branch," explained Breitkreuz. "I guess I wasn’t the only one having problems." Two weeks ago Breitkreuz raised a Question of Privilege in the House of Commons complaining that individual Members of Parliament no longer had access to independent, legal experts to draft their amendments to government bills. The Speaker of the House has yet to rule on Breitkreuz’ Question of Privilege. "Now we’re seeing the consequences of the government’s failure to deal effectively with the concerns I raised in the House," said Breitkreuz.

"In my mind, the unilateral decision by the government to restrict every M.P.’s access to confidential, expert legal advice is simply a blatant attempt to control the agenda even more than they do now. The last time Members of Parliament had expert legislative drafters providing independent legal advice during debate of a government bill was Bill C-68 in 1995," revealed Breitkreuz. "We’ve been sent here to hold the government accountable and to insure that legislation is the best it can be. As soon as we become a thorn in the side of the government, they feel uncomfortable, and they take our tools away so we can’t be as effective as we should be."

-30-

For more information, please contact:

Garry Breitkreuz, M.P.