Is PCC Reneging on Its Own Mandate?

The People’s Constitution Commission has been given an extra six months to wrap up its tasks, including preparing a report with recommendations for the prime minister. Doctor Dylan Vernon, who was initially brought on as a consultant for the P.C.C., has since parted ways with the commission. We reached out to him to get his take on this extension.

 

Dr. Dylan Vernon, Political Scientist

“I was basically trying to understand why there was an extension and the answer is that the work was not finished.  But one of my concerns that I expressed was that the P.C.C. promised that there would be a public consultation phase and from my analysis and understanding, such a phase was never officially started or announced.  I think it got merged into the education phase.  Clearly, some surveys were done and people did express some views, but the idea was that some interim sort of report would have gone back to the people and that interim report was never produced. And so, the final report that, I understand, is being worked on will not be going back to the people as far as what the Chairman of the P.C.C. is saying.  A little bit more alarmingly to me is the statement coming out of the P.C.C. that produced a final report.  They are going to have and recommend that the government share it and do consultations with people.  For me, that is the P.C.C. reneging on its own mandate because the P.C.C. is supposed to do that consultation and use that as part of the input to prepare the recommendations that will then go through the prime minister to the House of Representatives. This in-between phase, giving the government that responsibility, as opposed to an independent body doing it, doesn’t make any sense to me.”