Right now, there are about 500 Manitobans who have signed up for and who are waiting to present to a committee in the Manitoba Legislature on a variety of pieces of legislation that concern them.
The vast majority of these are waiting to speak to Bill #20 (which increases the PST from 7% to 8%) and Bill #18 (the NDP’s controversial legislation on bullying). Under the existing rules of the Manitoba Legislature, when these Bills were called to committee, these hundreds of people would have been advised of the dates that committee had been scheduled. In the case of Bill 18 and Bill 20 there would be several days of committee. However, they would not have been told which day they would be actually presenting to committee. What they would have been forced to do is either guess the day that they would be presenting or simply come day after day and wait for their turn, even if that meant presenting at 4am in the morning.
If this sounds like a ridiculous way to conduct a process that is supposed to allow for public input into legislation it’s because it is ridiculous. It is one of the reasons I conducted what is known as a filibuster, to prevent legislation from going to committee for as long as possible until a more reasonable process was agreed to for these public presentations. I believe strongly that we need to move beyond the old system where Manitobans are forced to present on unknown days and at unknown hours.
For that reason, I was pleased that late last week the NDP government finally, after weeks of negotiation, agreed to conduct the public presentations on Bill 18 and Bill 20 in a reasonable fashion. It was agreed that for those who had registered as of last week, they will be assigned an evening or a Saturday when they will present. They are guaranteed to be able to make their presentation to committee on the day that they are assigned and there will not be more than 30 presenters on the day that they select. While it is still not a perfect system, it is light years ahead of how committees have been run in the past and will ensure that Manitobans who are coming to express their views are able to participate in a respectful process.
The other thing that would add to the dignity of the committee process is if Premier Greg Selinger and the rest of his Cabinet Ministers and MLAs would agree to attend the public presentations with an open mind and be willing to listen to suggestions. The importance of our public presentation system isn’t just that Manitobans have the right to speak. The importance is that those they are speaking to are actually listening and willing to make changes. Already, some of Premier Selinger’s ministers have said they are not willing to listen to the public or consider any changes to legislation. That is disrespectful and hopefully that is an attitude that changes before committees actually begin.
For now I am proud that we were able to achieve a better and more respectful system for Manitobans who will be presenting at committee on Bill 18 and Bill 20. I look forward to hearing the views of Manitobans at these committees.
