Tories relent, agree to fast-track trade bill supported by biz community

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives agreed to fast-track the government's interprovincial trade bill Monday so it could become law before the legislature rises for the summer.
Bill 47 The Fair Trade in Canada (Internal Trade Mutual Recognition) Act and Amendments to The Commemoration of Days, Weeks and Months Act (Buy Manitoba, Buy Canadian Day) passed early in the evening as members prepared to stay late to pass 36 bills before the break.
The NDP government introduced the bill May 22, well beyond the deadline for ensuring its passage before the recess.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES
Last week, the PCs offered to speed up the process — to make sure the bill passed — if the NDP agreed to pass four Tory bills.
In the end, the PCs agreed to pass the government bill without their bills being passed in return.
'There's always negotiations and there's always something that's given to be able to support Bill 47, and that work took place over the weekend,' government house leader Nahanni Fontaine told reporters.
She wasn't prepared to say what the government gave up to ensure the free trade bill became law. 'What I can confirm is I didn't give any bill in exchange,' she said.
Premier Wab Kinew wanted the province's fair trade bill passed before he attended Monday's first ministers meeting in Saskatoon with Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Manitoba business leaders had supported the NDP government's bill. Since U.S. President Donald Trump waged a trade war with Canada, Carney has said he wants to see a free trade deal among provinces in time for Canada Day.
Kinew threatened to extend the legislature sitting for three weeks if the PCs didn't fast-track his government's fair trade bill. The Tories relented, but called it 'weak legislation.'
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
'This doesn't support labour mobility,' PC leader Obby Khan told reporters Monday.
The legislation removes trade barriers for goods and services between Manitoba and reciprocating jurisdictions in Canada that have similar mutual recognition rules. The goods and services of a reciprocating jurisdiction's standards and approvals would be recognized as meeting the comparable standards and approvals in Manitoba.
The mutual recognition rules do not apply to goods and services that are provided by Crown corporations, however.
'The NDP put a watered-down bill forward,' Khan said. 'Weak legislation is better than no legislation — and at least this will give the premier something to move forward with to make Manitoba better.'
Fontaine said 36 government bills were expected to receive Royal Assent Monday night before MLAs left the chamber until the session resumes Oct. 1.
'I'm really proud of the of agenda that we've brought forward.'
She highlighted a handful of bills, including one that imposes additional consequences when an impaired driving offence involves bodily injury or death and another that orders landlords to cover the cost of displaced tenants when a building is deemed unsafe, 'which we saw at Birchwood Terrace.' Tenants of the building on Portage Avenue were displaced for seven months after its structural stability was questioned.
She hailed 'Nello's law,' named in honour of the late education minister Nello Altomare, that amends the Public School Act to ensure every public school provides a nutritious meal program to students.
Among the dozens of other bills headed to final approval was one to add gender expression to the human rights code — a move that would include protections for people to be called by their preferred pronouns. The bill, similar to laws in most other provinces, met with a mixture of praise and opposition at public hearings.
Another bill would change highway traffic laws to impose new minimum distances for drivers to maintain when coming across snowplows and emergency vehicles. A change to the Public Health Act would eliminate the option of putting people with communicable diseases in jail, and divert them to a hospital or other health facility instead.
RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES
The government did not get all of its legislative agenda passed.
A bill to enact tax changes announced in the spring budget, including a change to personal income taxes that will no longer raise tax brackets in line with inflation, will not pass until after the fall.
The Tories used their right under house rules to hold back five bills till the fall.
One bill includes several proposed changes to observances at schools. O Canada would have to be sung daily, and a little-used provision that required God Save the King to be played would be eliminated. The Tories said the bill would remove the royal anthem as an optional patriotic observance.
Another bill held back until fall would lower political donation limits and require political parties to have a code of conduct for election advertising.
A third bill would forbid liquor licences in urban convenience stores and gas stations — a move the Tories say will affect small businesses and customer choice in the few locations where such licences have been issued.
-With files from the Canadian Press and Maggie Macintosh
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Carol SandersLegislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
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