Budget bill passes Senate
MEMBERS SEND PARLIAMENT A MESSAGE
The Trudeau government’s budget bill passed the Senate without amendments Thursday, but the broader dispute over which parliamentary chamber has the right to decide budgetary matters was left unresolved as Parliament shut down for the summer.
Senators voted 50-33 to drop their insistence on amendments to the budget implementation bill, which would have deleted a provision allowing the government to hike the federal excise tax on wine, beer and alcohol every year by the rate of inflation.
But at the same time, they sent a message back to the House of Commons, reminding MPs that the Senate is constitutionally empowered to amend any legislation “whatever its nature or source.”
Their message was in response to the government’s rejection of the Senate amendments because they “infringe upon the rights and privileges” of the Commons.
That assertion, sent in a message to the Senate on Wednesday after passing unanimously in the Commons, echoed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s contention that only the elected chamber of Parliament has the right to make decisions on budgetary matters and that appointed senators therefore have no business trying to rewrite the budget.
Senators countered that the Constitution prohibits the appointed upper house from initiating a money bill, but does not stop it from amending — or even defeating — one.
Even the government’s representative in the Senate, Peter Harder, who had been urging senators to defer to the will of the elected chamber, agreed with the need to reaffirm the Senate’s powers to amend, even if it ultimately did not exercise those powers on the budget bill.
“We asserted our rights as a Senate, as an institution, with respect to our role and responsibilities on all legislation,” he said, emphasizing the word “all.”
“Our message is one that I very much support.”
However, government House leader Bardish Chagger declined to say whether she accepts that message or by what authority the government contends the Senate does not have the power to amend budget bills.
Instead, she repeatedly made the point that the budget itself was passed by both houses of Parliament and that the budget implementation bill simply gave effect to it.
Nevertheless, Chagger listed the “healthy dialogue” with the Senate among the government’s accomplishments in the spring sitting of Parliament.
“Already we have shown we can work together in adopting Senate recommendations on bills such as the response to the opioid crisis and to amending our citizenship law,” she said.
The Senate’s message was supported by all independent Liberals and independent senators in the chamber, including a number of those who had raised significant concerns about the budget bill and had originally supported the Senate amendments.