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Comment: Cooling-off period legislation reveals government by fiat

​​​​​​​A commentary by a lawyer in Victoria: In effect, the government has passed “blank cheque” legislation that will make significant changes to the process of purchasing property in British Columbia.
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The government’s “cooling off” legislation on real-estate purchases is going to be finalized by committees, not debate, and could leave buyers with a scrambled system that serves no one well, Robert Finlay writes. DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

Legislative processes are generally dull affairs, but British Columbians should be concerned about the NDP government’s passage of amendments to the Property Law Act that, presumably, will bring a “cooling off” period to residential real estate purchases.

I say “presumably” because the government has passed Bill 12, which says precisely nothing.

Comprised of only two substantive sections (s. 42 and 43), neither section provides any details on the rescission rights granted by the amendments (“rescission” simply being a right to rescind a contract).

Bill 12 merely states that the details will be provided at some later date by “regulation.” Regulations are not laws debated and passed by legislatures. They are rules made outside the legislative process by ministers or government departments.

In effect, the government has passed “blank cheque” legislation that will make significant changes to the process of purchasing property in British Columbia. These changes will affect thousands of British Columbians for an untold period of time, perhaps permanently.

And yet, the substance and merit of those changes will never be examined or voted upon by the legislature. They will be promulgated behind closed doors in government offices, receive no legislative scrutiny and will not be debated.

Given that the definition of “legislature” is a “body which makes laws,” passing blank-cheque legislation that simply subverts and avoids the legislative process is a form of stealth oligarchy, not democracy.

The timing of Bill 12 is also questionable. With interest rates rising, the housing market cooling and some recession indicators flashing, it could be that a cooling-off period is no longer necessary.

But that issue is no longer up for debate in the legislature. With the passage of Bill 12, it is the government, by ministerial fiat, that will make those decisions.

This is bad policy, and worse governance. British Columbians deserve better.