- Comments on Senate Reform , Lloyd MacIlquham, 17 Jan.’08

I was saving this for a good time to post – now seems to be good

see: Tor Star, "Big brains better than big names", James Travers, Dec 18, 2008 04:30 AM, http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/555601)

Appointed senate for ‘life’ was intended to free senators from partisan politics and to have highly qualified people as opposed to those who are popular or long time party supporters

Senate is according to number of seats for each province

Custom has developed that Senate does not exercise ‘veto’ powers since not elected so limited to review and debate Change to have the province appoint representatives, selected on merit in various areas of activity, the choice procedure to be conducted open and transparently (not necessarily a committee review, not necessarily an election) with strong protocol against partisan choices.

If the term of appointment must be limited then at least 12-16 years with appointments staggered either every four year or six years to avoid large % during one party reign in government adding partisanship and undue bias towards any particular transient socio-economic trends

Number of committees established in various areas of important societal activities - e.g. children; poverty, housing, etc.; minorities; aboriginal and first nations; human rights & charter of rights; law and order, security; science – impact and development; environment; various aspects of economy – domestic, international; population growth including immigration; inter-provincial affairs; taxes; health care; culture; international affairs; (at least one for each department and Ministry of the federal government) etc. Senators appointed based on their expertise in one of these areas to serve on that committee. Each province holds a seat on each committee (or possibly two seats). Committees to deal pro-actively on the various issues as well as review of legislation with sufficient powers to initiate and conduct a review even to the point of a full blown commission. Committees open, transparent and accessible. Parliament may request such a committee and each piece of legislation subject to some kind of review and bound to consider the committee reports in open and transparent fashion.

Example:
“public benefit” products, sectors – there is a need in a segment of the population that is compelling but this need is not being taken care of by the private sector, for whatever reason for exampled, either because chances of a profit are not high enough to motivate the private sector such as too expensive to develop and the segment benefited is too small or regulations on private industry cause too long a delay in bringing to market; as well as, strategic products, simply too important to Canadian for economic, health , or whatever other reasons, that there is a public benefit in direct involvement.

Basic problems with turning to private companies to due research and take products to the market place for “public benefit” products is that they may not be profitable.
For example, pharmaceuticals are reducing the amount of research for antibiotics because of their infrequent use in the population, so can spend 100’s of million in research and never recoup it. Canada establish programs to either set up facilities to do the research or fund existing private companies.

Whenever some breakthrough in research is announced it is always followed up with “George Murphy, a study co-author and chief of dermatopathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said this proves the principle that specifically targeting and attacking cancer stem cells can work. The next step is to see if the same strategy will work in humans, he said, adding new melanoma treatment will likely be years down the road.” (See Scientists slow cancer's growth, By destroying stem cells that drive tumour's expansion, melanoma can be controlled http://www.thestar.com/living/article/294901Jan 17, 2008 04:30 AM)

Or “it will be 10 years, etc.”
If it that important then why 10 years, presumably due to costs, perhaps the regulations can be adjusted to facilitate research, but maintain safety.
Environmental research, …,
Senate committees to identify these “public benefit” products and make recommendations, then mechanism for their approval and investment