Finance measures bill sent back to House despite concerns at amendments committee
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Saulnier’s reservations about the bill piggybacked on concerns raised Wednesday during House debate by Claudia Chender, the New Democratic MLA for Dartmouth South and a member of the law amendments committee.
Chender, too, took issue with the clause in the bill that would increase the capacity for the government to borrow money without having to bring the matter before the entire House.
‘It is emblematic of the pattern we've seen over the past eight years of increasing disregard for our democratic systems and oversight, concentration of power, including crucial borrowing and spending power in executive council,’ Chender said.
Chender said the NDP does not seek to constrain the authority of government to spend in the face of an emergency, like a pandemic.
‘There may be occasions when government must act quickly to respond to emergencies and when financial resources will be required in that action, but this enumerated borrowing power is not restricted to emergency situations,’ Chender said. ‘In fact, there are no conditions at all that would constrain the government in their ability to borrow astronomical amounts of money without anyone in this chamber ever knowing about it.’
Chender said MLAs are elected to represent constituents and to hold the government accountable.
‘Our tools for this task are debate and questioning,’ Chender said. ‘A government that is not publicly willing to argue or even disclose their case and answer those questions is a government we might want to be wary of.’
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