OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Senate reform proposals risk landing the country in another "gut wrenching" constitutional quagmire, Ontario is warning.
Marie Bountrogianni, the province's intergovernmental affairs minister, urged a Senate committee Thursday to reject Harper's proposal to impose eight-year term limits on senators.
While the proposal is only a small step toward meaningful Senate reform, she noted that Harper is planning to unveil this fall a process for electing senators.
"We do not want to go down the road of Senate reform," Bountrogianni told the committee.
She predicted that opening constitutional discussions on Senate reform would inevitably lead to broader negotiations on a range of divisive issues as happened in the early 1990s with the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords.
"We have a lot of historical references to other constitutional debates that pretty well ripped the country apart, that were gut-wrenching, that took a lot of time. We don't think we have that luxury at this point in time."
Bountrogianni said Senate reform is not a priority for Ontarians and urged the government to focus instead on more important matters, such as fixing the so-called fiscal imbalance and bolstering funding for post-secondary education and infrastructure.
Should Harper persist in talking about Senate reform, however, she said the Ontario government would prefer to abolish the upper house altogether.
Barring that, if Harper is determined to elect senators, she said Ontario's 23 per cent share of seats in the upper house would have to be increased to reflect the province's 39 per cent share of the country's population.
The Harper government contends that it needs only the approval of the two houses of Parliament to impose an eight-year term limit on senators, who currently sit for up to 45 years until the age of 75.
Bountrogianni offered no opinion as to whether provincial consent might also be required, noting that legal experts are split on the constitutionality of Harper's plan.
The federal government also contends provincial consent wouldn't be required to institute a process for electing senators. Officials argue that it wouldn't technically amount to a constitutional change since the prime minister would retain his power to appoint senators, although he would appoint only those who win election.
However, Bountrogianni appeared to suggest that provincial consent, and possibly a national referendum, would be necessary to proceed.
If senators are to be elected, she said the government will have to simultaneously redress the under-representation of Ontario in the upper house and craft a mechanism for breaking deadlocks between the Senate and House of Commons. Such reforms, she said, would require "a full national discussion and the consent of the Canadian public."
Rather than waste time on Senate reform, Bountrogianni urged the Harper government to redress the under-representation of Ontario and western provinces in the House of Commons, where Ontario holds 34 per cent of the seats.
Bountrogianni's Ontario-first approach did not sit well with several senators, who noted that the Senate was designed to protect regional interests, a counter-balance for smaller provinces against Ontario's domination of the elected chamber. They also noted that Senate reform is important to smaller provinces, particularly in the West.
"How do I go back to Nova Scotia and say the Ontario that we used to be able to depend on to unify the nation is saying 'Go fly a kite, we're not interested in you anymore, we're minding our own back yard, forget us,' " said Tory Senator Gerald Comeau.
