Politics This Morning: Cue up the Alice Cooper

Good Thursday morning, MPs, Senators, and their staff will head into work for the last time this morning, before today’s adjournment officially begins their summer break. Or, in the lingo of some MPs, constituency weeks. Taking a holiday is bad politics, even if you’ve been working 12-hour days. Where does this year’s silly season fall in the all-time drama rankings? In the middle of the pack, at best, in PTM’s opinion. There was certainly plenty of acrimony, partisanship, and procedural shenanigans in the House of Commons. Government bills were pushed through both Chambers in the final days, and others were introduced for the first time. There was an eyebrow-raising decision from the Liberal centre to move to extend the hybrid sittings of Parliament for another year, just before Parliament was to adjourn. Ultimately, however, this year’s drama felt a little hollow. The Liberal-NDP “it’s not a coalition because we didn’t get any cabinet seats” deal sucked the suspense out of what is nominally a minority Parliament. There is no election coming to raise the stakes. The Senate wasn’t strong-armed into rubber-stamping government bills to the degree it has been before. The prime minister jetted across the Atlantic well before the final votes were held. What’s happening today? Let’s get into it. What’s cabinet up to? Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU is still in Kigali, Rwanda, today, for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The heavy lifting for that meeting isn’t scheduled to begin until tomorrow. Foreign Minister MÉLANIE JOLY is also in Rwanda with the prime minister for the meeting. Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly is part of Canada's delegation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Kigali. The Hill Times photograph by Sam Garcia In Parliament The last days before a summer adjournment can sometimes bring surprises, but right now it seems most likely that MPs will spend the day debating the Liberal motion to extend semi-virtual House proceedings for another year, with the Liberals and NDP forcing a quick vote before the end of the day. Senators are expected to fast-track and approve DAVID LAMETTI’s extreme intoxication bill, C-28, through all stages today. They are also planning to hold a final vote on the government’s budget implementation bill, C-19. The only House committee scheduled to meet today is the Public Accounts Committee, which will gather at 11 a.m. to review a draft report. At 9 a.m., the Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee is meeting to continue its study of former senator DIANE GRIFFIN’s public bill to combine Prince Edward Island’s two Employment Insurance zones into one, since presently Islanders outside of Charlottetown get better benefits than those who live within the city. At 11:30 a.m., the Senate Internal Economy Committee will meet, though as is customary it has kept a detailed agenda for that meeting secret. Legislation corner Guilbeault faces decisions on S-5 Environment Minister STEVEN GUILBEAULT will have plenty to chew on over the summer, including a series of Senate amendments to, and critiques of, his bill S-5. S-5 is one of the more complex bills in Parliament. Its proper name is too long to put into print. Its short name, the Strengthening Environmental Protection for a Healthier Canada Act, conjures images of preserving wetlands and scrubbing spilled oil off of baby seals. In reality, though, this bill is about setting rules for how toxic or otherwise harmful chemicals must be managed by industry. S-5 was introduced into the Senate first, and the Senate Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee recently completed its study of the bill. Notwithstanding loud lobbying by industry, the committee made a host of changes to the bill—32 amendments in all. The committee took issue with the government’s claim that the bill would—as an Environment Canada press release put it—give Canadians “the right to a healthy environment.” That phrase is indeed repeated several times in the bill, but not, according to the Senate committee, in a way that would actually create such a right in any meaningful way. Canada’s existing chemicals management legislation spells out several limitations on the circumstances in which a Canadian could bring action against an entity that violates the act. Those limitations are too onerous to be practical, according to the Senate committee’s report, and Bill S-5, as drafted by the government, doesn’t do anything to change that. “As Bill S-5 does not propose the removal or re-evaluation of these barriers, this Committee is concerned that the right to a healthy environment may remain unenforceable,” reads the report. The Senators have other concerns as well, including how the bill would affect Indigenous peoples, how it wouldn’t do enough to stop animal testing, and how Health Canada may not (in the Senators’ opinions) have the resources to actually implement the bill. The committee’s amendments attempt to address some of those concerns, at least in part. They would force the government to define “reasonable limits” to what the “right to a healthy environment” means in law. They would include language that at least encourages businesses from avoiding testing potentially harmful chemicals on vertebrate animals if it isn’t strictly necessary. They would also require the minister to table reports on how the bill has affected Indigenous peoples, and on how foreign-made products stack up against the Canadian standards. How will Guilbeault respond to these amendments? Senator PAUL MASSICOTTE, who chairs the committee, told PTM yesterday that he didn’t know, though he added the minister has said he would be open to amendments to the legislation. Unlike a “C-bill” that starts in the House, the government doesn’t have to decide upon a direct response to Senate amendments right away. The bill still has to go before a House of Commons committee: there, Liberal MPs can do some of the government’s work for it, inserting their own amendments (or the minister’s) that delete or modify those made by the Senate, if the centre so desires. Independent Senator Paul Massicotte and other members of the Senate Energy Committee made a long list of amendments to the government's chemicals management bill, S-5. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Ultimately, however, the Senate has to sign off on any changes made to the bill. Guilbeault will have the summer to mull over the Senate’s amendments as well as what lobbyists and government lawyers think of them, and decide how much water he’s willing to put into his wine. What else is happening today? Supreme Court Chief Justice RICHARD WAGNER is giving a presentation at 8 a.m. today at one of the regular “mayor’s breakfast” events hosted by Ottawa Mayor JIM WATSON and the Ottawa Board of Trade. You can check out the details here. Environment Commissioner JERRY DEMARCO is taking part in a seminar on the government’s 2030 emissions-reduction plan starting at 8:30 a.m. today in Toronto. You can find the details here. In case you missed it Conservatives host anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists on Hill A small group of Conservative MPs recently helped three anti-vaccine, anti-government activists host a meeting on Parliament Hill. Some of the MPs walked out once the conspiracy theories started flying, while others stuck around and pledged allegiance to the activists. JUSTIN LING has that story, here. Feds will lose money on TMX purchase: PBO Parliamentary Budget Officer YVES GIROUX’s latest report on the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project found that the government is likely to lose money on the multi-billion dollar investment. In the event that the expansion is cancelled, that loss would grow to about $14-billion, he found. You can read it for yourself here. Theresa Tam re-upped by cabinet The federal cabinet has re-appointed THERESA TAM as Canada’s chief public health officer for another three years. The decision was made through an order-in-council on June 16. Tam has served in the role since 2016, and has now been reappointed three times. She has served as one of the government’s de facto chief spokespeople about the COVID-19 pandemic, and her management of the pandemic response has drawn both praise and criticism—the latter, primarily because she initially advised members of the public not to wear a mask to limit the spread of COVID-19, later reversing that advice, and because she was very late to acknowledge evidence that the virus was airborne. BoC deputy retiring Bank of Canada deputy governor TIMOTHY LANE is retiring this fall, according to a press release from the Bank. Lane has been at the Bank since 2008. He will stay on the job until Sept. 16, but the process of replacing him will begin immediately, according to the press release. Lane is one of five deputy governors who serve under Governor TIFF MACKLEM, as does senior deputy governor CAROLYN ROGERS. Kheiriddin talks Charest’s path to victory IAN CAMPBELL dove into the end stages of JEAN CHAREST’s campaign for the Conservative Party leadership, and spoke to campaign co-chair TASHA KHEIRIDDIN about the strategy. You can find that story here. Send your news tips to pmazereeuw@hilltimes.com. The Hill Times

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Politics This Morning

Politics This Morning: Cue up the Alice Cooper

Plus, Theresa Tam gets a confidence vote from the government.

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