Senate to salvage scrapped medal plan
OTTAWA • Following the federal government decision to cancel its plan to issue commemorative medals to honour Canada’s 150th anniversary, the Senate is launching a medal program of its own.
The Senate’s internal economy, budgets and administration committee approved a plan Thursday to spend $225,000 to create and issue the decorations. A run of 1,500 bronze medals is planned, to be produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. It is expected the medals will be ready for issue by Canada Day, July 1.
It’s proposed that each senator will get 12 medals to hand out to members of their communities — to “unsung heroes,” as Conservative Sen. David Wells put it — who have made positive contributions. Another 50 medals will be allotted to the speaker’s office, and 43 extras will be kept aside for special cases. Senators would work together to avoid overlap, Wells said.
The medals are intended for people who’ve put in long hours at the food bank, said the committee’s deputy chair, Liberal Sen. Jane Cordy — “who have done wonderful work,” but who may not get recognition from, say, the Order of Canada.
The committee’s chair, Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos, said he would have no problem going up to a microphone and justifying the spending. “I think this is not a significant amount of money compared to what the government has been spending to celebrate other elements (of the 150th anniversary),” he said.
The administration of the program will be by a small committee of senators with Wells and Liberal Sen. Serge Joyal leading the charge.
After a vote on a more expansive (and twice as expensive) medal program was defeated last week on a tie vote, the more modest proposal passed Thursday morning by a vote of 13 to 3. Neither debate nor voting on the matter followed partisan lines.
Conservative Sen. Elizabeth Marshall, one of three senators who voted against the motion, expressed concerns over how the move might be perceived. “When we’re subject to so much criticism, I would at this stage like to avoid criticism,” she said.
Liberal Heritage Minister Melanie Joly didn’t offer a specific reason why the medal program, which had been long planned under the Harper Conservatives, was being cancelled. Canada has issued commemorative medals at important anniversaries in the past, including the centennial and the 125th anniversary of Confederation.