OTTAWA — The Harper government has no intention of asking the Supreme Court if it has the power to unilaterally reform the Senate.
Nor will it let potential provincial court challenges stand in the way of implementing changes to the appointed upper house.
Tim Uppal, minister of state for democratic reform, says the government is confident it has the constitutional authority to proceed alone with two modest Senate reform bills, which are to be introduced — for the fourth time — later this month.
One would impose term limits on senators and the other would encourage provinces to establish mechanisms for electing Senate nominees.
A number of provinces maintain the reforms require constitutional amendments that must be approved by at least seven provinces with 50 per cent of the population.
And Quebec has threatened to take the matter to the country’s top court if the federal government persists in proceeding on its own.
But Uppal says there’s no need for legal clarification.
“All of our government’s Senate reform commitments, we believe, are within the constitutional authority of Parliament,” Uppal said.
“And as we’ve always said, we’re not interested in opening up the Constitution. We strongly believe that Canadians don’t want drawn-out constitutional fights.”
Liberal Leader Bob Rae has said the government is courting needless conflict with the provinces by refusing to seek the top court’s advice before proceeding with its Senate reform initiatives.
The Harper government has sought the Supreme Court’s opinion on its bid to create a single national securities regulator, which has also sparked some strenuous provincial objections.
In that case, the government said it wanted “greater certainty” before proceeding, even though it “strongly believes that Parliament has the constitutional authority” to act alone.
Uppal could not explain why the government is refusing to seek the same legal clarity when it comes to Senate reform, other than to reassert that “we’re going to move ahead because we believe it’s within the constitutional authority of Parliament.”
As for Quebec’s threatened court challenge, Uppal said that won’t stop the government from passing and implementing the two bills.
“That is not something that is going to slow this legislation down,” he said.
“We believe that the Senate must change in order to reach its full potential as an accountable and democratic institution, we need to bring it into the 21st Century of a modern-day democracy.”