Dear Constituent,

Thank you for your correspondence to me regarding the Liberal’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act. I have received so many emails on this.

The Emergencies Act was passed in 1988 to add parliamentary supervision and make changes to its predecessor, the War Measures Act. Under the act, a sitting government can declare one of four types of emergencies: a public welfare emergency, a public order emergency, an international emergency, and a way emergency. In this case, the Liberals have called a public order emergency.

Once a government has issued an emergency declaration, they have 7 days to table in Parliament a motion outlining the declaration of emergency and the reasons for calling an emergency. Parliament is required to immediately debate this motion.

At the conclusion of debate, Parliament will vote on the contents of the motion. If the majority of Parliament votes against the government’s motion, the motion is immediately defeated, and emergency powers are revoked. If a majority of Parliament votes for the motion, the government is granted the specific powers laid out in the motion for a period of 30 days. A government may choose to end the emergency declaration before the 30-day point, but to extend the emergency powers, the government would have to pass an additional motion in Parliament.

The Liberals officially issued a declaration of emergency on February 14, 2022. You can read the declaration of emergency here.

My Conservative colleagues and I will be voting against the Liberal’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act.

The Prime Minister appears to have made no effort to de-escalate the situation. Instead, he has insulted and disrespected Canadians, and then when it blew up, instead of apologizing and listening to what people had to say, has jumped straight to the most extreme measures to deal with the protests.

Imposing powers of the Emergencies Act sets a dangerous precedent. The Government of Canada should not have the power to close the bank accounts of hardworking Canadians simply on the suspicion of supporting causes of which the government doesn’t approve. This is a slippery slope, and not how the government should operate in a free and democratic society.

Again, thank you for taking the time to write to me on this important issue.

In your service,

Kyle Seeback