Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cabinet may have approved the parameters of programs to compensate farmers affected by concessions Canada made in the Trans Pacific Partnership, but it stops well short of legally committing to the measures necessary to authorize the money to be spent, iPolitics has learned.

Those measures will have to be adopted before any money can flow, Privy Council officials have confirmed to iPolitics.

“As the Prime Minister has said, cabinet approved the parameters of a compensation program as part of their consideration of the TPP,” wrote Privy Council spokesman Raymond Rivet. “Further authorities will be sought through Cabinet and the Treasury Board as the program is implemented.”

Rivet confirmed there is no order in council related to the compensation program. When cabinet approved the parameters of the compensation program is a secret, Rivet said.

“The programs were approved by cabinet. Dates are cabinet confidence,” said Rivet.

The response from the Privy Council Office came after several days of follow up questions from iPolitics being bounced from department to department. Conservative political staff and the Prime Minister’s Office have yet to respond to direct and detailed questions on TPP compensation from iPolitics.

The revelation that cabinet voted for the parameters of the compensation programs but not the legal authorities that would allow it to spend the money has opposition critics concerned.

“It’s certainly not the way the prime minister described it,” said NDP critic Malcolm Allen. “The way he described it was that this was a compensation package, full stop, which gave the impression to farmers across the country, especially on the dairy side, that they had full compensation based on what he said and clearly that’s not the case. Without an OIC, he has no authority to actually give them any money at all.”

“Besides the broad strokes of what it might look like, there isn’t anything there. So literally he has handed them an empty basket. There’s nothing in it.”

The comments come less than a week after Harper announced the successful completion of negotiations for the historic Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact involving 12 countries including Canada and the United States.

At the same time as Harper announced the conclusion of negotiations, he acknowledged that the TPP will have a negative impact on jobs in Canada’s auto sector and on farmers who are part of Canada’s supply management system which governs markets such as milk, eggs and chickens across the country.

As part of the TPP negotiations, Canada agreed to allow foreign imports into some areas under supply management such as 3.25 per cent of annual production in the dairy sector and 2.3 per cent of annual production of eggs.

To compensate farmers, Harper said there would be $4.3 billion worth of compensation provided to dairy farmers over the next 10-15 years — programs that had already been approved by cabinet, he said. However, without the measures necessary to authorize the money being spent, the announcement of a compensation program is tantamount to an election promise — a good intention that isn’t yet legally binding, say experts.

The next cabinet and the next Parliament will have to adopt those measures before the compensation program can go ahead, said Donald Savoie, professor at the Université de Moncton.

“The prime minister and the prime minister’s office might have concluded that the package has been decided but the government of Canada cannot spend money through an order in council without having parliamentary approval – it’s the most fundamental tenet of our parliamentary system…You cannot spend a nickel without Parliamentary approval so ultimately Parliament will have to approve it.”

However, Savoie said there are ways to allow the government to start working on the packages before Parliament approves them.

Whichever party forms the next government will be free to proceed with the TPP deal and compensation packages or to scrap them, Savoie said.

“If Harper is not re-elected, the incoming government is not committed to pursue it,” said Savoie.

The fact that the Harper cabinet stopped short of adopting the measures needed to authorize spending on the promised compensation programs concerns people like former Liberal cabinet minister Wayne Easter who is seeking re-election in his PEI riding of Malpeque.

“The numbers that the prime minister is spouting are really numbers that are on a wing and a prayer,” Easter said, a former Liberal cabinet minister in the Chretien and Martin eras. “If there is no cabinet authorization, no decision is really made on these numbers by cabinet, we really don’t know what they mean.”

Easter said the Harper government has also backed out of promises in the past, such as the compensation he promised Newfoundland and Labrador for giving up its right to processing all fish products caught off of Newfoundland.

“This prime minister’s record is not good on keeping his word on these kinds of measures,” Easter said, adding that is one of the reasons why it is so important to see the details of the TPP, the side agreements and the compensation programs.

Allen echoes Easter’s concern about the Harper government’s track record of keeping its promises, citing the example of the government’s promise to fine railroads that didn’t meet targets to ship grain then watering down the penalty.

“The prime minister said $4.3 billion over 15 years. He has no authority to spend $4.3 billion over 15 years so does that $4.3 million become something less over 15 years or does it just become a buyout program at the end of the day?” Allen asked. “It can become anything. It can become nothing as well.”

“If I were the dairy farmers of Canada, I would be really concerned by the fact that they have no firm commitment here. They have just literally got a promise that maybe I’ll do something if I get re-elected.”

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has said his party favors trade but wants to see the details of the deal. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has come out against the deal, saying the trade agreement risks costing Canadian jobs and an NDP government would not be bound by it.

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