Members of Parliament are back in their ridings, but the Senate toils on – and a number of bills, most of them matters unlikely to elicit controversy, will be sent on to Rideau Hall for final signing on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
An omnibus budget bill that includes a number of contentious sections, including measures to alter environmental oversight, to sell off Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and to break Canada Post’s monopoly on overseas mail, is still before a Senate committee.
Marjory LeBreton, the leader of the government in the Senate, said Monday that the witness list has been struck and there are expectations that the committee will get through the 900 pages of Bill C-9 by July 8 – a week from Thursday.
That would be followed by two days of debate on the bill’s third reading. “So we are hoping to have it finished and out of here for royal assent on the 9th (of July),” said Ms. LeBreton.
Liberal and independent senators tried unsuccessfully last week to have the bill broken into a number of different parts. Now the government wants to ensure that it is not delayed at the committee stage.
Meanwhile, a number of other pieces of less divisive legislation were passed by the Senate on Monday evening. They include:
» Bill C-11, which would reform the refugee system;
» Bill C-13, which extends parental benefits to military parents who cannot claim them in the year their children are born or adopted because they are called back to active duty;
» Bill C-23A, which would restrict the awarding of criminal pardons;
» Bill C-24, which would create a land-title registration system for aboriginal reserves;
» Bill C-34, which would establish a Canadian museum of immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax.
And Ms. LeBreton said she expects others will will likely be passed by the Upper House before Canada Day including:
» Bill C-2, a free-trade deal between Canada and Colombia;
» Bill 268, a private-member’s bill that would increase sentences for people convicted of trafficking human beings under the age of 18.
“If we had not been driven out of the place” by the earthquake last Wednesday, Ms. LeBreton said, most of these bills would have been ready to be debated Monday on third reading.
(Photo: Chris Wattie/Reuters)
