Budget bill debate, partisanship to define final weeks of 41st House

With a month to go in Canada’s 41st Parliament, the government will be focused on passing priority bills, especially its budget implementation bill, but it’s possible more legislation will be introduced before the House rises in June to give voters an idea of what a re-elected Conservative government would do, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan says. “There are some that are fairly close to the finish line that obviously we would like to see complete their process—the Safe and Accountable Rail Act is obviously a critically important one,” Mr. Van Loan (York-Simcoe, Ont.) told The Hill Times last week. “A number of these bills that are in the Senate, they’re in a position where they could make it across the finish line fairly easily,” he said. After a break last week Parliamentarians are back on the Hill, with just four weeks and two days scheduled before Parliament rises June 23 and ahead of the federal election in October. There are currently 19 government bills before the House of Commons, six of which are from the Senate. The Senate is dealing with six bills, all of which originated in the House of Commons. That’s a total of 25 government bills—12 of which have already passed through one of Parliament’s two Chambers. Before Parliament rises, in addition to dealing with remaining government legislation, there’s also a slate of private members’ bills on the Order Paper, votes need to be held on the main estimates (and the Supplementary Estimates ‘A’ have also been tabled), and any remaining committee reports have to be tabled and adopted by Parliament. There are also a number of important committee studies still underway, including the Procedure and House Affairs Committee’s work to develop a harassment policy for MPs. There are currently 16 private members’ bills before the House, and another 33 before the Senate, 12 of which were proposed by MPs. These include Conservative MP Michael Chong’s (Wellington-Halton Hill, Ont.) much discussed Bill C-586, dubbed the Reform Act 2014, which is currently being studied by the Senate Committee on Rules, Procedures and the Rights of Parliament, among others. But Mr. Van Loan said it’s “certainly” possible the government will introduce more legislation. “There are a number of other issues that we have identified as important, and introducing legislation—there’s always the opportunity for opposition parties … to say, ‘Yeah, that makes sense, let’s agree to a process quickly at all stages.’ But certainly we want to be on the record indicating some of the things that we would do once re-elected. That’s still a possibility,” Mr. Van Loan told The Hill Times. He declined to elaborate on what the bills might be. The government’s “major priority” in the coming weeks will be passing Bill C-59, the budget implementation bill dubbed Economic Action Plan 2015 No. 1, said Mr. Van Loan, which contains increases to the child-care benefit, expanded Tax Free Savings Accounts and other budget goodies the Conservatives will campaign on. The budget implementation bill, however, has also been met with criticism due to its omnibus nature, as it seeks to amend and introduce a range of significant legislative measures unrelated to the economy, including proposing to enact the Prevention of Terrorist Travel Act, changes to the National Energy Board Act, and changes to the Parliament of Canada Act to create a Parliamentary Protective Service, among others. A 167-page bill, it also seeks to introduce retroactive changes to the Access to Information Act to exempt now-defunct long-gun registry records, a proposal that has been highly controversial as it would prevent possible criminal charges being laid against the RCMP in connection with its use of records. Access to Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault said it would set a “perilous precedent.” Passage of Bill C-52, the Safe and Accountable Rail Act, which currently sits at second reading in the House, is another priority for the government, said Mr. Van Loan, as is passage of Bill S-3, an Act to Amend the Coastal Fisheries and Protection Act. It currently sits at third reading in the House. “We want to get that one done quickly, because it has amendments so it does have to go back to the Senate,” he said. Passage of Bill S-6, the Yukon and Nunavut Regulatory Improvement Act, which currently sits at report stage in the House, is also a priority, said Mr. Van Loan. But with just over four weeks and 25 government bills left to go, on top of a roster of private members’ bills, Mr. Van Loan said it’s “inevitable” some bills will be killed. Measures proposed in two bills currently before Parliament—Bill C-58, the Support for Veterans and Their Families Act; and Bill C-57, the Support for Families Act—were “swallowed up” and included in the budget implementation bill so “it won’t matter that they die on the Order Paper,” he said. A source speaking to The Hill Times on the condition of anonymity said the government’s top three priorities for the next few weeks would be: passing the budget implementation act; passing Bill C-51, the Anti-Terrorism Act that’s currently before the Senate National Security and Defence Committee (which is doing clause-by-clause consideration this week); and passing Bill C-42, the Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act, currently at report stage before the House, which is important to the Conservative Party base. In his most recent Thursday update to the House of Commons on May 14, Mr. Van Loan also highlighted Bill S-7, the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, which sits at report stage before the House. Asked about the possibility of late-night sittings tentatively scheduled for the last 10 sitting days in June, Mr. Van Loan said it’s “always an option that’s open to the government,” but he said he hasn’t “taken any decision yet.” He doesn’t see the House rising early, he said. NDP House leader Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster, B.C.) said the NDP caucus would be focused on demonstrating to Canadians what an NDP government would look like and establishing “that the best option is an NDP government in the fall.” “We’ll continue to show Canadians what we will bring to government after Oct. 19. So we’ve been doing that with opposition days and our private members’ bills and motions,” he said. Mr. Julian said one of the NDP’s remaining opposition days would be used to push a House discussion of the Nutrition North program. With just more than a month to go and much on the agenda, time is tight, and Mr. Julian said he expects the government to use tools like closure and time allocation “to shut down debate” as it has in the past. Liberal deputy House leader Kevin Lamoureux (Winnipeg North, Man.) said the Liberals’ number one focus would be the government’s budget implementation bill, which Liberals “will not be supporting.” “We’ve seen what will be a major platform issue from the Liberals with regard to our tax plan, and it’s good to be able to contrast the two: one that assists Canada’s wealthiest and excludes millions of Canadians, versus one that’s more universal and benefits the middle class,” he said. Mr. Lamoureux said the daily Question Period “will no doubt be one of the bigger highlights of the session,” and said Liberals intend to question the government on how it achieved a balanced budget this year, as well as questions on the Senate. With an election on the horizon, NDP MP Niki Ashton (Churchill, Man.) and Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett (St. Paul’s, Ont.), reached by The Hill Times last week, both said partisanship in the Chamber is high at present, with the 2015 election campaign effectively already on and parties staking out electoral positions in the House. lryckewaert@hilltimes.com The Hill Times

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Budget bill debate, partisanship to define final weeks of 41st House

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