Liberals bog down clean air act committee with amendments: MPs

Members of a parliamentary committee studying the much maligned proposed clean air actare accusingthe federal Liberals of trying to delay its work by introducing a series of last-minute amendments.

The Liberals introduced on Thursday dozens of amendments to Bill C-30, originally drafted to give the federal government power to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases.

The bill, which haspassed first reading in the House of Commons, was sent lastyear to a special legislative committee to be rewritten.

The committee, however,has only until March 30 to report back to the Commons. One of the Liberal amendments introduced Thursday is said to be about 3,000 words long.

Committee members said after a meeting in Ottawa that the Liberals should have introduced the amendments earlier, and they fear the amendments will bog the committee down.

"I expected a delay today and I thought it would come from the government," NDP MP Nathan Cullen said. "Instead it came from the Liberal party. And why? I honestly don't know. It's truly disappointing for all of us."

Cullen, who accused the Liberals of being irresponsible, said the New Democrats submitted their amendments to the proposed legislation last November.

"As we try to change the bad Conservative law, the Liberals chose a path of delay, brought in late amendments, disrupted the work of the committee," he said.

But one environmentalist said the Liberals want to turn the proposed legislation into a money bill, which means the federal government would have the power to spend money to curb greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.

"What I think is really happening is an attempt by the Liberals to ensure that money can be spent to protect the environment," John Bennett, executive director of the Climate Action Network, said in Ottawa.

Liberal MP David McGuinty, a committee member, defended the bill on Thursday ata committee meeting.

"We've put forward some very serious substantive amendments because this is a bad bill."

Later, he said the Liberals submitted the amendments for a variety of reasons.

"Many of these were tabled earlier. Some of them had been rewritten earlier on the advice of the legal counsel of this committee. Some of them had to be reordered on the advice of the clerk. Some of them had to be redrafted on the advice of the drafters. Some of them had to be translated at the last minute because they were improperly translated.

"This is an onerous process."

McGuinty said he thinks the committee should have no problem completing its work by its deadline next week.

'Committee in a quagmire'

But Mark Warawa, parliamentary secretary to Environment Minister John Baird, said the amendments have the potential to slow the committee down considerably.

"We've been stalled and I don't know if it was deliberate or not, but the results have put this committee into a quagmire and made it difficult to move forward."

Under the first reading version of the bill, there was no mention of the Kyoto Protocol and there were no hard caps on greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 or 2025, but the government said it would seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 45 to 65 per cent by 2050.

Also, its emissions regulations on large polluters did not take effect until 2010.

Under Kyoto, the previous Liberal government pledged that Canada would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by six per cent below 1990 levels by the five-year commitment period of 2008 to 2012.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said the clean air act will not be declared a matter of confidence when it comes up for a vote.

All three opposition parties have tabled amendments, 56 in all,that call on the government to honour its commitments made under Kyoto. Harper has said that the Kyoto targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are not realistic.

The amendments call for the government to place hard caps on industrial emissions and develop a long-term plan that sets out targets for every five years starting in 2015.