Liberals spot possible roadblock by Tory senators

Conservative Senate majority could hold up legislation

OTTAWA— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s new government got down to work Thursday but acknowledged the Liberals will have to find a way to avoid a roadblock on its legislative agenda in the Conservative-dominated Senate.

Dominic LeBlanc, the government House leader, said Trudeau has tasked him to work with senators on “all sides” on how the Liberals can work “to improve our legislation and ensure that the government’s agenda . . . will ultimately pass into law.”

“Our preference would be to work with the Senate in a non-partisan, more independent way,” LeBlanc told reporters. The government wants to move quickly after Parliament returns Dec. 3 to bring in tax changes that will cut middle-class income taxes while raising them for those earning more than $200,000 annually.

But the distribution of power in the Senate has raised questions about the ability of the Trudeau government to push through its tax measures and other legislation promised during the election campaign.

In 2014, Trudeau expelled Liberal senators from his caucus to sit as in- dependents as part of a push to make the upper chamber less partisan.

However, while the 29 former Liberal senators still align themselves with the party, their numbers are short of the 47 Conservative senators. There are also seven independents and 22 vacant seats.

Asked whether the government would need immediate Senate approval of the tax changes, LeBlanc said he didn’t want to “pre-empt” the measures to be introduced by Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

“Our priority is to get the tax reduction in place as quickly as possible,” he said, adding that the government’s goal is to have the middle-class tax cut in place for Jan. 1.

LeBlanc added he has no reason to think the Conservative-dominated Senate would want to “frustrate” the government’s agenda.

Earlier, Trudeau met for the first time with the Liberal members of Parliament who won Commons seats last month. The caucus, which has multiplied from 36 before the election campaign to184 now, moved from a remote spot in the basement of Parliament’s Centre Bloc to the spacious reading room down the hall from the Commons chamber.

When the cheering died down, Trudeau repeated one of his central campaign themes — that MPs must be a voice for their communities in Ottawa rather than a conduit for messages from on high to their con- stituents. “I need each and every one of you to remember one thing,” Trudeau told the caucus.

“Regardless of the committees you’re on, the roles you have, regardless of party demands and the partisanship that will continue to exist in this House . . . your one job that you cannot ever forget is to be a strong voice in service of the people who sent you here from your constituencies.”

In keeping with the Liberal commitment to more open government, newly named cabinet ministers began to sketch out some of their priorities and positions.

Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said “it’s within the realm of possibility” the government will seek an extension from the Supreme Court of Canada on the deadline Ottawa was given to craft new legislation on doctor-assisted dying.

Last February, the high court declared unconstitutional the criminal code’s ban on assisting gravely ill people who wish to end their lives. Parliament was given the opportunity to replace the law within a year.

Wilson-Raybould told CBC-TV it’s fair to say an extension on devising new legislation would help the government come to grips with the issue.

She also said the government would look at possible changes to Bill C-36, the anti-prostitution law passed by the Harper government after the Supreme Court in its 2013 Bedford decision struck down the existing law on the sex trade. The new legislation aimed at discouraging prostitution is seen as unconstitutional by some who say it will endanger sex workers.

“We’ve had some preliminary discussions around the Bedford decision and how we approach it more broadly, and . . . that is going to involve having substantive discussions with people who are fundamentally impacted by this. And that’s something that we’re definitely going to look into and have further to say on that,” Wilson-Raybould told CBC.

She said the government has not set a timeline for moving to legalize marijuana.

Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion reiterated that the Liberal government supports the proposed Keystone XL pipeline to transport oilsands-derived crude to the United States from Alberta. But he said the government does not want the controversial pipeline, which strained Canada-U.S. ties during the Harper years, to tarnish bilateral relations.

“Our position is that it is up to the Americans to see what they can do, but we support this project and we hope that it will work well,” Dion said.

TransCanada Corp. has been seeking approval for the pipeline for seven years. But under pressure from environmentalists, U.S. President Barack Obama has repeatedly put off a decision and is now expected to reject it before leaving the White House.