Workers clean the Senate chamber in Ottawa on Jan. 27, 2011.FRED CHARTRAND/The Canadian Press
The Conservative-dominated Senate will now be working a little harder, adding Monday and Friday sittings to its agenda, so that it can get something significant into law before the Christmas break.
Marjory LeBreton, the Government Leader in the Senate, told the Globe Monday that the extra sittings, which began Monday and will continue until parliament rises in mid-December, are necessary to get passed into law at least three pieces of legislation that the government has identified as priorities - the budget implementation bill, the bill to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board and the legislation adding 30 more seats to the House of Commons.
Despite the Conservative majority government and its ability to shut down debate, the Tories have yet to pass its promised legislation this fall. In fact, the Conservatives have been criticized by the opposition for its heavy-handed use of time allocation measures in both committee and the House to limit debate to get bills through. Still, it has not made speedy progress.
At the moment, says Ms. LeBreton, there are 23 bills in various stages before the House of Commons and Senate.
She noted, too, that the Senate is expecting to see soon the omnibus crime legislation - Bill C-10. It's been very controversial because it includes nine crime bills the Tories were unable to pass during their minority governments.
"This is a bill we promised to pass within 100 parliamentary sitting days, which gives us until the second week of March to get this bill through," says Ms. LeBreton.
Bill C-10 has also proved contentious because the government has not revealed how much it will actually cost Canadian taxpayers. It was over this issue that Stephen Harper and his government was found in contempt, which then triggered the defeat of his government last March.
Now, the bill is poised to become law and Canadians still do not know the cost.
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, who is trying to examine the cost of the bill, said Monday that he will not be able to provide a break-down before the legislation passes. There are issues, he said, which relate to lack of "available date to undertake costing."
Meanwhile, he notes that the government has "not adjusted the budgetary fiscal planning framework for its tough on crime agenda."
"No adjustments made in budgets 2009, 2010 or 2011 notwithstanding the fact that it is one of the main pillars of its political and legislative agenda ...," he said.
There are estimates that the crime agenda could cost about $3-billion over the next five years, he noted.