Activist Senate to amend budget

Changes expected to infrastructure bank creation

In another sign of the increasingly activist role the Senate is playing in Parliament, the government’s key budget legislation is being targeted for amendments by the upper chamber for the second consecutive time.

With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau having released Liberal senators from caucus and appointed independent senators, votes no longer fall along predictable party lines. There are now three main groups: 38 Conservatives, 35 independents, and 18 Liberals, along with seven nonaffiliated senators and seven vacant seats.

At least two parts of Bill C-44, the omnibus legislation that implements the government’s budget priorities, are likely to see substantial amendments when the bill arrives in the chamber next week. It’s not yet certain they have enough votes to pass, but both have some support in all

IT’S A 300-PAGE BILL, AND THE INFRASTRUCTURE BANK IS A NEW, COMPLEX INSTITUTION.

three groups of senators.

Under an amendment that will come from independent Sen. André Pratte, the section of the bill that creates the Canada Infrastructure Bank — a new agency that would use public funds to help attract private investment for infrastructure projects — would be separated out for further study in the fall.

Pratte said it’s highly unusual for a large financial agency to be created through omnibus legislation, and the Senate must take care to properly consider it.

“We simply lack time, because summer recess is approaching,” he said. “It’s a 300-page bill, and the infrastructure bank is a new, complex institution, and an important one. We need to study it in depth to make sure we get it right.”

Many senators also oppose a measure in the bill that creates an annual inflationary increase in the excise tax on alcohol.

Sen. Claude Carignan, who sits on the Senate banking committee and was the Conservative caucus leader until recently, said Conservatives will look favourably on both potential amendments.

“If somebody moves a motion to split the bill (to take out the infrastructure bank) ... probably, we will support this initiative,” he said.

The alcohol tax is also a concern, he added. “I can confirm that many senators on our side have a problem, first, with raised taxes, but also to do with an automatic system of inflation. We have concerns because it’s something where you raise taxes without Parliament authorization.”

If the whole Conservative caucus votes for the amendments, the support of just a dozen other senators would be needed for passage.

The government would then need to bring the bill back to the House of Commons if it wants to contest the changes. Splitting off the infrastructure bank would also mean a lengthy delay on its creation — a problem for the government, which aims to have it up and running by the end of the year.

The Senate has already been pre-studying the bill — including in the banking committee, which released a report this week saying it was not yet convinced the infrastructure bank has the right governance structure.

A statement from Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s office said the Senate "has an important role to play in the legislative process and we followed their pre-study very closely.”

In 2016, Morneau pulled a section of the budget legislation that proposed changes to financial consumer protection after some senators, citing provincial jurisdiction concerns, opposed it.

At the time, the government’s representative in the Senate, Peter Harder, urged his colleagues to back down.

"Amending or obstructing Bill C-29, a budget implementation bill, would run counter to the historical practice in this chamber and, in this particular case, constitute an overreach of the Senate’s role in Canada’s parliamentary democracy,” he said.

This time around, the senator shepherding the bill through the chamber is independent Sen. Yuen Pau Woo, appointed by Trudeau last year. Though he doesn’t support those potential amendments, Woo won’t be making a similar speech, saying his main concern is ensuring senators get enough time to study the bill.

“I’m taking a different approach to sponsoring this bill,” he said. “I defend it in the broad sense that I want to keep it moving through the process, but I’m not here to take the government’s position on this.”

Carignan said he’s not concerned the upper chamber is overstepping its role.

“It was the mandate from this government,” he said, pointing to the many bills the Senate has amended. “The government said to the Senate, do your jobs and review our legislation. If some things have to be fixed, fix it.”