House of Commons.

• Author: Chaplin, Andrew Bartholomew
• Position: Legislative Reports

The First Session of the 42nd Parliament continued, becoming the second longest in Canada's Parliament's history, surpassed only by the First Session of the 32nd Parliament in the early 1980s. The session is also unusual in that it resumed in the interim chamber established in West Block of the Parliament Buildings after the closure of Centre Block for renovations. Speaker Geoff Regan (Halifax West) remarked that it was "no small feat when we consider the scale of effort required to move many of the occupants and contents of the Parliament buildings into West Block." This account covers from January 2019 to the end of March 2019.

Legislation

On February 5, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism Pablo Rodriguez (Honore-Mercier) introduced Bill C-91, An Act respecting Indigenous languages. The House referred the bill to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on February 20, after the government invoked time allocation. The bill establishes a Commissioner of Indigenous Languages and officially "recognizes that the rights of Indigenous peoples, recognized and affirmed by section 35 of the Constitution Ad, 1982 include rights related to Indigenous languages".

A report from the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs had recommended that Bill C-421, An Ad to amend the Citizenship Ad (adequate knowledge of French in Quebec), standing in the name of Mario Beaulieu (La Pointe-de-l'Ile) be designated nonvotable. Mr. Beaulieu had indicated to the Speaker that he wished to appeal the designation of the bill to the whole House, pursuant to Standing Order 92(4), by filing with the Speaker a motion to that effect signed by himself and at least five other members of the House representing a majority of the recognized parties in the House. The vote by secret ballot took place on January 29 and 30. The motion was rejected and the bill was designated non-votable.

Financial Procedures

The government designated March 19, as the final allotted day for the supply period ending March 26. The Official Opposition gave notice of 61 opposed votes of the Supplementary Estimates (B) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019, and 196 votes of the Interim Estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020. Having previously designated March 18 as the last supply day, the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Bardish Chagger (Waterloo) changed the designated day to March 20. She informed the Speaker and the opposition of this in...