Madam Speaker, in my brief time in the House rarely have I seen something rushed through as quickly as Bill C-58.
I had the joy of sitting on the transportation committee. The bill was as quickly considered as a bill could be considered in committee. For the information of the folks at home, the Liberals across the way have decided that prorogation of the House is a good idea. I see members shaking their hands, some one way and some the other, but that is basically what is going on.
The Liberals have been dragging their feet on changes to the Railway Safety Act for a very long time. Each time they talk about it they decide they did not do it right the first time and have to make a couple of amendments. That is what is going on here.
They went ahead and brought the bill to committee. They did not take a lot of time, energy or effort to go ahead and notify stakeholders with regard to Bill C-58. In one session on one day all the people who had an interest—and I have copies of their briefs—were rushed through very quickly, one after another, rapid fire, so the government could get its changes to the bill. Now it is before us at report stage.
Let us look at some of the interesting scenarios we have with regard to Bill C-58. The Reform Party put forward some amendments to the bill in committee. Just like in all other committees we recognize the government will not have its ears open in this regard. It does not want any changes or any improvements to the legislation.
In committee the Reform Party recognized that government members were trying to go for very broad and encompassing definitions of what would be considered a combustion emission or pollutant. In the past they have included very broad definitions which were as expansive as possible so that if any problems arise they are able to address them.
This was not the first time this type of thing happened. We recognized that if we strictly defined pollutants as combustion emissions it would be very clear what the government was intending in this regard. It would not be talking about noise pollution, for example, which is referred to in other pieces of legislation. It would be fairly specific. It would address exactly what we were trying to regulate.
It is very important to be precise in terms of what we are trying to regulate. If we allow the government too broad a definition, it sometimes takes too great a liberty. Who gets hurt by that? It is the railways and the other stakeholders. We tried to make that small amendment.
I am just raising this as an example. This is not the first time we have brought forth amendments to a piece of legislation to try to improve it. Government members turned it down because they wanted as broad a definition as possible. They did not want to discuss it. As a result, somewhere down the line somebody will have to pay the price for that.
The government does not want to accept responsibility with regard to provinces and municipalities in terms of any costs that will come about as a result of the regulation. It does not have any problem with hoisting all types of costs on people, whether it be the railways in terms of precise definitions like combustion emissions versus pollutants, or whether it be the provinces and the municipalities as a result of the regulations. It does not have a problem with other people internalizing the costs of its regulations.
When the government does these types of things it forces others to pick up and internalize their costs. We learned in economics in university the whole concept of either internalizing or externalizing costs. If people do not want to internalize a cost, they spread it to others.
That is when government members like to talk about sharing. They love the concept of sharing when they can share costs or expenditures with others. That is when they like to share. That is exactly what we have in this government legislation. That is exactly what we see with the Liberals all the time. They love to share the misery. They love to share the costs.
This is not just with regard to Bill C-58. I can look at a whole bunch of other pieces of government legislation to see that the Liberals love to share misery. They blame Mike Harris and Ralph Klein when they make cuts to health care. Indeed it is the Liberals who are offloading those costs and responsibilities.
It is exactly the same in this case. It is more minute but nonetheless we have members of a Liberal administration who love to share the misery. They love to share the cost with others, but they do not like picking up the responsibilities for what they do.
I have given a couple of examples in Bill C-58 where that type of top down arrogant philosophy continues on big issues like health care which impact on every Canadian. It has spread to other things, even the minutia in the Railway Safety Act. That is the type of problem we have.
I will apply a couple of the tests which I said the government should have applied before to other pieces of legislation. Who wants it? Who wants some of the changes? The Liberals did not even have the gratitude or openmindedness to notify ahead of time the stakeholders who were to be intimately affected by some of these things. They were rushed through the committee very quickly.