For immediate release
21 April, 2021
Today the Furey government announced it would be striking an all party committee of the House of Assembly chaired by the Minister of Justice, and includes 4 Liberal MHAs, 2PCs, 1 NDP, and 1 Independent. Reacting to this attempt at improving the elections act, NDP House Leader Jim Dinn calls the Liberal government’s approach nothing more than a cheap attempt to appear collaborative and weakens the power of the committee.
“Democracy, is not a partisan issue no matter if we’re in a majority or minority government,” said Dinn. “This committee should be chaired by an independent MHA, and answerable directly to the House of Assembly, and we will not be convinced otherwise.”
Dinn draws concerns with a government minister setting the agenda as chair, and calls this another attempt of the Furey Government to control the reformation of the elections act, when they should be using every opportunity to ensure this process is non-partisan.
“In what world would we come out of the election we just had, called by the government in power for their political gain, and then entrust all of the decision making on reforming the elections act to that same group of people?” Dinn said today. “Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should be outraged at this blatant attempt to control the outcome and recommendations that come from this committee – I am.”
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca