Regressive Features of Bill 61
Through Bill 61 -- An Act to restart Quebec's economy and
to mitigate the consequences of the public
health emergency declared on 13 March 2020
because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the
Legault government seeks executive power for
another two years to violate and override existing
law in order to fast-track the construction of 202
and possibly more public infrastructure projects
such as schools, seniors' residences, road work
and public transit. The bill contains regressive
features that many have denounced as arbitrary
such as the continuing power to deprive public
sector workers of their right to working
conditions acceptable to themselves within
negotiated collective agreements.
Violates Environment Quality Act
Article 15 of the bill states that the government
may through executive dictate declare that
provisions of the Environment Quality Act will not
apply to certain projects. Bill 61 gives the
government executive the power to single out
projects to be sped up and prescribed with
provisions replacing those in the existing Environment Quality
Act. With this power, government
executive regulations become law according to
whatever the authority wants. This means the
government can arbitrarily according to its whim,
and possibly to accommodate powerful private
interests, override and violate legal provisions
in the Environment
Quality Act.
Violates Expropriation
Act
In cases of expropriation of the property of
individuals to make way for economic projects,
executive authority under Bill 61 can declare
illegal any legal challenge of the expropriating
party's right to expropriate under the Expropriation Act.
The government says this arbitrary power to deny
rights in violation of existing law is needed
under the pragmatic hoax of speeding up economic
projects.
Violates Act
Respecting Contracting by Public Bodies
Regarding the awarding of public contracts, the
bill says that the government may by regulation or
on the recommendation of the Treasury Board
determine as acceptable certain actions that are
in fact in contradiction with the Act Respecting
Contracting by Public Bodies. This could
mean the elimination of public calls for tenders
thus facilitating the awarding of contracts to
specific monopolies according to executive fiat.
This arbitrary executive power is not new per se as it
already exists and has been used. What is new is
that the bill would now enshrine this arbitrary
executive power in law declaring it above any
existing regulations.
This provision in the bill has already caused an
uproar as it revives and brings to the fore the
memory in Quebec of open ugly corruption in the
awarding of public contracts to private interests
in return for financing of certain political
parties. The uproar has forced the government at
this point to declare that the power to restrict
public calls for tenders will apply only to those
projects involving municipal bodies.
Extends Public Health Emergency Indefinitely
Among other things, the declaration of a public
health emergency on March 13 gave power to the
government executive to cancel negotiated
collective agreements with health care and social
service workers in order to unilaterally change
their working conditions. This attack on workers'
rights has been loudly condemned.
Bill 61 introduces a clause to extend
indefinitely the public health emergency and its
anti-worker powers. In effect, the indefinite
extension of the emergency measures contradicts
the Public
Health Act under which the public health
emergency was declared. The legal measure in the
Act says that a public health emergency is
effective for a maximum period of 10 days. The
government must then renew the emergency and renew
it again every 10 days for as long as it deems
necessary or for 30 days with the consent of the
National Assembly. A government proposed amendment
to Bill 61 says the emergency and its arbitrary
attacks on public sector workers will continue
until October 2020 and longer if necessary.
Provides Government with Immunity from
Prosecution
As was the case with the declaration of a public
health emergency and the powers that it gives, the
bill is framed to provide total immunity for the
government executive. The preamble of the bill
explicitly says, "Immunity from prosecution is
granted to the Government, a minister, a public
body or any other person who performs an act in
good faith in exercising powers introduced by this
bill or implementing measures taken under those
powers."
This creates a very dangerous situation for the
people and Quebec society. The pandemic and
declaration of a health emergency and now the
reopening of the economy are being used to further
concentrate political power in fewer hands, which
are subordinate to narrow private interests. For
example, with this bill the government may decide
that safety training and standards in construction
are regulations hindering the mitigation of the
consequences of the pandemic and the reopening of
the economy. This argument has already been used
in the construction and other sectors eroding
health and safety standards and putting workers
and the broad public at great risk. Enshrining
these regressive practices in law and providing
those enforcing them with immunity are cause for
serious concern.
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 24 - July 4, 2020
Article Link:
Regressive Features of Bill 61
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
