Crunch time in Parliament: Bills we are watching

3 minute read 

With fewer than two weeks left in the parliamentary calendar, very little time remains to get legislation passed. 

Bills that are currently not in, or about to be, sent to the Senate face a tough road to pass in this sitting. 

The government can try to use procedural moves to force bills through the House, but would require the support of at least one other opposition party. Such moves don’t usually go over smoothly.

Here is an overview of some bills Compass Rose is closely tracking in the countdown to summer:

C-10 (Changes to the Broadcasting Act)

The parliamentary battle over C-10 has been going on for months, evolving from a discussion on updating Canada’s outdated broadcasting rules to a heated debate about censorship and free speech. 

The bill was stuck at committee for weeks. With the Bloc’s support, the government passed a time allocation motion, but not before the Conservatives put up a chaotic procedural delay of their own. 

The Conservatives have called on the government to retract the bill and have promised to repeal C-10 if they form government. 

For Erin O’Toole, the bill is no longer about much-needed broadcasting reform. He’s turned it into a battle cry against what his party sees as big government and censorship of free thought. 

The Liberals want this bill passed before the end of the session and will likely have to use more procedural tools to get it over the finish line. As house leader, Pablo Rodriguez is leading the charge through oversight of the legislative calendar and negotiations. 

Rodriguez was Minister of Canadian Heritage prior to Steven Guilbeault and would have had some part in the early development of the bill. He knows the issues and what C-10 means to the cultural sector, especially in Quebec. 

C-11 (Digital Charter Implementation Act)

Like many other bills, C-11 has been languishing in Parliament. 

Tabled in mid-November, the bill is stuck at second reading. The last time it was debated was almost two months ago. 

François-Philippe Champagne took over the file from Navdeep Bains, who announced his retirement from politics in January. Though Champagne recently addressed C-11 and the value it will bring to Canadians in the digital marketplace, he gave no timeline for its passage in the House.

Last month, the privacy commissioner outlined how his office believes the bill falls short. Given that C-11 has not even made it to committee yet, there is now little chance it will pass before the summer break. 

C-12 (Net-Zero Emissions)

The signature emissions reduction bill is one of the main sources of the legislative logjam in the House. The government hoped to quickly move it through the environment committee, but after being stuck there for almost a month, it only just got sent back to the House.

In an effort to secure NDP support for the bill, the government committed to include its 2030 emission reduction targets of 40 to 45 per cent below 2005 targets. 

The Conservatives and Greens have criticized the Liberals for trying to rush the bill through Parliament. Conservative opposition to the bill will continue.

Just as O’Toole has used the government's handling of C-10 to his advantage, look for the Liberals to use this bill as a wedge against Conservatives. 

C-5, C-8, C-15 (Indigenous reconciliation legislation)

Following revelations of a heartbreaking tragedy involving 215 children at a former Kamloops residential school, there was a significant change of tone on reconciliation bills that had previously been moving slowly. 

C-5, which establishes a national day for Truth and Reconciliation, and C-8, which amends the Oath or Affirmation of Citizenship to respect Indigneous Peoples, had been sitting in the House for months. In the span of a week, both bills moved at lightning speed, with C-5 becoming law; and  C-8 expected to follow shortly. 

C-15 — which aims to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) — is the government’s priority Indigenous legislation. But it is not without its opponents. 

Last month, in order to get around opposition delay tactics, the government used some procedural tools to get the bill to the Senate. 

C-15 is based on a private member’s bill from the previous Parliament, which got stuck in the Senate. It ultimately died on the Order Paper when the 2019 election was called. 

That same opposition to the bill still exists in the Senate, so the government wanted to give C-15 as long of a runway as possible in the Upper Chamber. After a Senate pre-study, the bill is likely to pass shortly.

C-19 (Changes to the Canada Elections Act)

Despite being tabled in November, Bill C-19 only passed second reading in mid-May. 

But this one is tricky. 

The federal bill gives the chief elections officer the authority to ensure that an election during the pandemic would be conducted safely. Keep in mind, an estimated 250,000 people will be needed to run it.

Pandemic elections are complicated, to say the least. Recall the electoral chaos in Newfoundland and Labrador earlier this year.  

While all parties understand the need for change, none of them want to look too eager to support the bill, lest they look like they want an election. 

After numerous delays, the bill passed second reading with all party support.

Even though the bill was sent to committee for study in the middle of May, the study of the bill only started this week. That’s because for weeks, the committee was at a stalemate over a study looking into last summer’s prorogation of Parliament. 

Given how other government bills have been stalled in committee, the chances of this bill passing are now quite low.