CHECKING IN ON BILLS INTRODUCED BY THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT THAT THE HOUSE IS PROBABLY NEVER GOING TO TOUCH AGAIN. WHAT LEGISLATION WILL FALL BY THE WAYSIDE AHEAD OF THE NEXT FEDERAL ELECTION?
NO MOVEMENT ON PENSION, LONG GUN ISSUES
Since coming into power, the federal Liberal government introduced more than a dozen bills that the House of Commons has never actually debated, from electoral reforms to limits on solitary confinement.
Some, but not all, have been “subsumed” into other bills, to use language from the office of House leader Bardish Chagger. Three had their substance worked into a budget implementation bill that has already passed, for example. Another three are reflected in a massive justice reform bill introduced on Thursday.
Using big bills to lump together small ones is exactly the kind of behaviour that Liberals criticized before coming into government. During the election campaign in 2015, they vowed never to use socalled “omnibus bills.” When the previous government lumped many provisions into one big bill, Liberals complained they were preventing careful debate; when the current government does it, per a news release from Justice Canada Thursday, they say they are ensuring consideration “in a timely fashion.”
Such tactics have nonetheless allowed Liberals to keep a list of unused bills, which every government eventually accumulates, relatively trim. Still, a handful have not progressed at all. And time is now starting to run short for bills to make it all the way through the legislative process before the next election in fall 2019.
“Our government has been delivering on an ambitious agenda that we promised Canadians,” said Chagger’s press secretary Sabrina Atwal in a statement to the National Post. “There is more work to be done. Our government remains committed to its legislative agenda and will continue to move ahead with its plans.”
Here’s a look at the legislation they’re letting slide.
PENSION PLAN CHANGES (C-27)
It should come as no surprise that the Liberals’ pension legislation, which would establish a framework for the establishment of target-benefit plans, hasn’t gone anywhere.
That’s because it is at the centre of an ongoing investigation by the ethics commissioner into Finance Minister Bill Morneau, whose family company administers such plans and would thus benefit from the legislation. The opposition has argued that this put Morneau in a clear conflict-of-interest when he introduced the bill in October, 2016.
AGE OF CONSENT FOR GAY COUPLES (C-32)
This bill would repeal the section of the criminal code banning anal sex except under specific circumstances, and make the age of consent for sex the same for heterosexual and homosexual couples. The LGBTQ community has long asked for such a change. Justice Minister Jody WilsonRaybould introduced it in November, 2016, and nothing has happened since — although, last summer, Liberal MP Arif Virani sang its praises during a statement in the House, saying he was “proud” of his government for the bill’s introduction.
The substance of this bill has been twice “subsumed”: it was folded another bill, C-39, last March, and C-39 has in turn been folded into the criminal justice reform bill that was introduced on Thursday. “The decision to move this way was to make better use of Parliament’s time,” said WilsonRaybould’s spokesman David Taylor.
ELECTORAL REFORM (C-33)
This bill, introduced in November 2016, would repeal much of the Conservatives’ “Fair Elections Act.” It would, among other things, remove limits on public education activities the Chief Electoral Officer can conduct; make voter registration cards acceptable ID at the polls; allow people to vouch for each other at the polls; and expand access to voting for Canadians living abroad.
The House affairs committee had requested some of those changes and some are getting antsy. “I’ve got to tell you there’s going to be hell to pay if we went through all that work and Elections Canada is raring to go and that legislation doesn’t get through Parliament,” NDP MP David Christopherson said in a meeting Feb. 27. “I’m a little disappointed that one of you isn’t confident enough in your own government’s ability to pass legislation so you’d give us that assurance today.” Liberal backbencher Marc Miller piped up saying, “I can guarantee that I’ll wield the immense power that I hold within government to move this forward.” And Christopherson responded, “Yes, well it’s funny until it doesn’t get done and then it’s not so funny.”
LONG-GUN REGISTRY (C-52)
This bill would enable the government of Quebec to access formal federal long gun registry records, by repealing Conservative amendments that had made it impossible to gain the records through access-to-information and privacy law.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tabled the bill in June 2017, and Parliament has not yet discussed it. Quebec’s own provincial registry, initiated after the federal one was scrapped, was upheld in court as constitutional last October.
Despite the House leader’s office not mentioning the bill in a list of those lumped into bigger pieces of legislation, Goodale’s office clarified on Sunday that C-52 is “subsumed” into a more recent firearms bill, C-71, which has passed second reading.
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT LIMITS (C-56)
This bill’s primary focus is to impose limits on the amount of time that prisoners can be kept in solitary confinement without their case being reviewed — 21 days, at first, then 15 days 18 months after the law comes into force — although it allows those limits to be voided by wardens. Goodale introduced it last June and it has not yet been debated. Meanwhile, the government has continued fighting lawsuits in court. Last month, the government decided to appeal a B.C. Superior Court decision that found indefinite solitary confinement unconstitutional. A civil liberties group is appealing an opposite decision in Ontario Superior Court.