Chris in the Commons: Exposing the budget as a Trojan horse

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Mr. Speaker, the Conservative everything-but-the-kitchen-sink budget is yet another giant step away from the promise of transparency that these supposed reformists rode in on.

This Trojan horse is stuffed with all sorts of measures the government does not have the courage to present to Canadians as stand-alone bills. It is an abuse of power taken straight from the Liberal playbook, and it is an abuse of the trust of Canadians.

If the government has nothing to hide, why is it burying so many nefarious initiatives in one omnibus bill?

Ms. Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain, NDP): Mr. Speaker, I guess the minister's selective memory of what is in the budget is to be expected since it is over 880 pages long. In fact that is my whole point.

Here are just a few of the items that should never have been in the budget. It gives the Minister of the Environment the power to eviscerate environmental assessments. It authorizes the fire sale of AECL with no checks or balances. It begins the deregulation of Canada Post. And it puts the final stamp of approval on the government's theft of $57 billion from the EI account, money that belongs to workers.

These provisions have no place in the budget. Will the government support the deletion of these sections and, if it must, reintroduce them as stand-alone-bills?