No time to adopt laws on uniforms, dogs
The Couillard government won’t have time to adopt bills banning pit bulls and police camouflage pants before the fall.
With only three weeks of parliamentary sitting time left before the summer break, those two bills are caught in a logjam at the institutions committee level, along with several other bills sponsored by Justice Minister Stéphanie Vallée.
Promised public consultations into the two bills – 128 in the case of dogs and 133 on uniforms – have not even begun.
“Certainly not,” Liberal house leader Jean-Marc Fournier told reporters when asked whether 123 and 133 can be adopted before the house recesses June 16.
Meanwhile, after talks between the party house leaders, an agreement was reached Thursday to prioritize a few other bills, which in theory means they will be adopted before everyone ships out.
Included on that list is Bill 138, which is designed to allow judges to work in more than one judicial district to speed up the wheels of justice, and Bill 98, designed to remove obstacles for immigrants seeking status in professional associations.
Bill 98, a priority bill for the government, is the most advanced in the process — the committee is examining it clause-by-clause. It will almost certainly be adopted.
The agreement also includes Bill 113, allowing adopting children to trace their origin even if their biological parents have passed away. That bill has been kicking around in one form or another for about seven years. Thousands of people are affected.
On Wednesday, Parti Québécois MNA Véronique Hivon deplored the numerous delays on the adoption bill and said it needs to be made law for humanitarian reasons. Her pressure tactics worked and got the bill bumped up.
“We have agreed to finish these three bills in three weeks,” an official in Fournier’s office told the Gazette late Thursday.
Sure to be disappointed, however, is Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux who was pushing for the dog and uniform bills to be adopted rapidly. He has said his patience has run out with Montreal police. Now hearings on those bills won’t start until the fall.
The house does not resume sitting until Sept. 20 although committees sit through the summer. Sometime in August, Quebec proposes to open debate on state religious neutrality, Bill 62, which has more or less slipped off the radar owing to party squabbling.