[2240.AB] Simplified language for MoFA powers

I would like to propose the following changes:

This simplifies the Charter and streamlines our laws.

The overall goal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not to make treaties. It is to maintain our foreign policy. Treaties are one (very useful) tool which can assist in that, but the steps by which new treaties are formed are more about procedure than about specific powers. This amendment would place those provisions in the Treaty Act instead of elevating it, unnecessarily, in the Charter. It does not, in practice, remove or add any powers. Ultimately, treaties still cannot be introduced to the Assembly without the knowledge and approval from the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

There’s no point in doing this.

We should strive to maintain a body of laws that is intuitively organized and accessible. Not every change has to be a drastic improvement. Incremental improvement has value too, and it doesn’t make sense to just dismiss an incremental change as pointless.

If you don’t believe this change would improve the organization of our laws, that’s a different story. But if that’s the case, it would be much more conducive to a productive discussion if you elaborated on why you feel that way, instead of saying there’s no point to something without any further explanation.

I support this change, but I would rather it it be as a part of a larger restructuring of the executive’s section in the Charter and associated laws.

Because it amounts to removing a section of the law, and one that deals with the rather important matter of treaties, for no reason. I don’t see how this actually makes our laws more simple and accessible, beyond making the Charter a few dozen words shorter.

Your new language also does not reserve the power to propose treaties exclusively to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and it removes the need for Cabinet approval.

I don’t think this is really the end result, because…

It explicitly reserves this power to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The only way for treaties to be ratified would be for the Minister of Foreign Affairs to propose it to the Assembly.

That process, in practice, ends up just being a chore where the Cabinet rubber-stamps the treaty. If Cabinet members want to support or oppose the treaty, they can do that as a legislator anyway. If the Minister of Foreign Affairs wants to win their support ahead of time and secure unified Cabinet approval when introducing a treaty to the Assembly, they can do that. I don’t think this change actually changes much in practice.

Closed due to inactivity per the Legislative Procedure Act , Article 1, Section 6.