Chamber Puts Together Draft Campaign Financing Legislation
Marcelo Blake
According to Marcelo Blake, president of the B.C.C.I., the preliminary version of the proposed legislation requires the input of a legal drafter to formally craft the language of the bill.
Marcelo Blake, President, B.C.C.I.
“It’s a draft so we will still need to take it to the draftspersons who have the better experience in the legal languages. It’s really just figuring out the best way to maneuver this within the current political arena to ensure that in fact this bill is actually put in place. It’s not a fix to everything, it’s not a complete answer or a final document that is not, as we said earlier, live, which means that it will be continuously changing and as we find the gaps, as the loopholes are identified, we anticipate that there are going to be adjustments in order to make it better.”
Reporter
“Give us a timeline in terms of what the chamber is looking at for this draft to actually reach the cabinet and legislative table.”
Marcelo Blake
“We don’t have a timeline at the moment, it will have to go through the process as was highlighted earlier. There is a process for us to be able to take it, via the senate, to the senate’s private bill option and for that to happen there’s a long process that must be followed, well I shouldn’t say long, a process that can definitely be maneuvered in a reasonable time. So it really is incumbent on it getting to the senate and for the vote to actually occur. One of the other things to highlight here is the fact that this was a part of the campaign promise by the current administration. In their PR and publications, pre and post getting into office, there was in fact campaign financing on their first hundred days. So it is concerning for us to see that in fact in the medium-term development strategy in 2022 to 2026 that was launched on Monday, this is actually set out to be completed sometime around 2026. Why would it need to take that long if in fact it was a part of your first hundred-day promise?”
