House of Commons/Chambre des communes.

• Author: Sokolyk, Gary
• Position: Legislative Reports/Rapport legislatifs - Canada House of Commons

The ever-looming possibility of a spring election set the tone for the early months of 2007, with repeated opposition challenges in the form of Supply Motions, Private Members' Bills and Committee Reports rejecting the government's policies and counteracting its legislative proposals. Opposition initiatives were focused mainly on the environment, Afghanistan, law and order, and economic policy.

On the environmental front, the House debated (February 1, 2007) and adopted (on February 5, 2007) a non-binding Supply Motion sponsored by the Leader of the Opposition, Stephane Dion, calling for the government to "honour the principles and targets of the Kyoto Protocol in their entirety". This was followed in short order by the adoption, on February 14, 2007, of the motion for third reading and passage of Bill C-288, a private Member's bill standing in the name of Pablo Rodriguez. Presently under consideration by the Senate, the resulting statute would require the government to table a detailed plan for meeting Canada's Kyoto targets within 60 days and to report annually to Parliament on its progress in this regard.

A heavily-amended version of Bill C-30 (Clean Air and Climate-change Act), the government's environmental initiative, was reported back to the House on March 30, 2007, after four months of study by the legislative committee to which it had been referred before second reading. The amendments amounted to a virtual re-draft of the bill and reflected a concerted effort to bring it into compliance with Canada's commitments under the Kyoto Accord. Even the title of the bill had been amended, symbolizing the radical transformation of the "Clean Air Act" into the "Clean Air and Climate-change Act". The bill remains on the Order Paper but has yet to be debated at report stage.

Government bills were frequently denied gentle treatment in committee. Typical of these was Bill C-10 (An Act to amend the Criminal Code (Offences Involving Firearms)) whose primary objectives were to increase mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment for individuals who commit serious or repeat firearm offences, and to create the new offences of breaking and entering to steal a firearm and robbery to steal a firearm. Referred to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights after second reading and reported back to the House on February 21, 2007, the bill was amended by the removal of all mandatory minimum penalties. The result was a truncated bill with nine clauses, compared to the original thirty-one. As happened in the case of Bill C-30, the title of the bill had been changed from the original "Act to amend the Criminal Code (minimum penalties for offences involving firearms and to make a consequential amendment to another Act" to reflect the amendments made by the Committee. At the time of writing, the bill remains on the Order Paper and has not been debated at second reading.

The concurrence of the House in the 36th report of Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs on February 22, 2007, established a twelve member legislative committee under the chairmanship of Bernard Patry to examine Bill C-35 (An Act to amend the Criminal Code (reverse onus in bail hearings for firearm-related offences), another element of the government's "law and order" legislative agenda. At the time of writing, the bill remains before the committee.

A government motion to extend key Criminal Code provisions instituted by the Anti-terrorism Act, S.C. 2001, c. 41, s. 4 for a further three years was opposed by all of the opposition parties including the Liberals, the original enactors of the anti-terrorism statute. After debate on February 9, 12, and 26, 2007, the motion was defeated in a deferred recorded division on February 27, 2007, with one Liberal Member voting with the government, one abstaining and others absent for the vote.

On Monday, March 19, 2007, Gordon O'Connor (Minister of National Defence) rose on a point of order to apologize to the House for having provided inaccurate information to Members, and to table revised responses to two written questions concerning Canada's commitments in Afghanistan and the arrangement with the Afghan government for the transfer of detainees.

In the face of renewed rotating strikes and a lockout of employees of the Canadian National Railway Company, and with the co-operation of all opposition parties but the NDP, Bill C-46 (An Act to provide for the resumption and continuation of railway operations) which had been introduced and read the first time on February 23, 2007 (prior to a tentative agreement was between CN and its employees) was considered on April 16, 2007, on which date closure was invoked and a special order respecting proceedings adopted, with the result that the Bill was read the third time and passed the following day. After similarly-expeditious passage by the Senate, it received Royal Assent on April 18, 2007.

Bill C-43 (An Act to provide for consultations with electors on their preferences for appointments to the Senate), which had languished on the Order Paper since its introduction in December of 2006, was debated for the first time at second reading on April 20, 2007. On April 18th, the Prime Minister had announced the appointment to the Senate of Bert Brown, one of Alberta's "Senators-in-Waiting" who had twice been victorious in (unofficial) Senate elections organized by the government of Alberta.

Tensions over the Canadian military engagement in Afghanistan continued to flare up throughout the period covered in this report with new casualties sparking renewed calls from the opposition benches for a review of Canada's military commitment. On a number of occasions, the government weathered opposition demands for the immediate resignation of the Minister of Defence. These were inspired by reports concerning the mistreatment of prisoners entrusted by Canadian troops to the custody of Afghan authorities.

An opposition (Liberal) motion calling for the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan in 2009 was defeated on April 24, 2006, with the NDP, which favours an immediate withdrawal, voting against the motion.

Other Legislation

Since February 1, 2007, the following government bills have received Royal Assent:

* C-3 (An Act respecting international bridges and tunnels and making a consequential amendment to another Act)--February 1, 2007

* C-16 (An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act)--May 3, 2007

* C-26 (An Act to amend the Criminal Code (criminal interest rate)--May 3, 2007

* C-28 (A second Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on May 2, 2006)-February 21, 2007

* C-36 (An Act to amend the Canada Pension Plan and the Old Age Security Act)--May 3, 2007

* C-37 (An Act to amend the law governing financial institutions and to provide for related and consequential matters)--March 29, 2007

* C-46 (An Act to provide for the resumption and continuation of railway operations)--April 18, 2007

* C-49 (An Act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the federal public administration for the financial year ending March 31, 2007 (Appropriation Act No. 4, 2006-2007))--March 29, 2007

* C-50 (An Act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the federal public administration for the financial year ending March 31, 2008 (Appropriation Act No. 1, 2007-2008))--March 29, 2007

* S-2 (An Act to amend the Hazardous Materials Information Review Act)--March 29, 2007

* S-3 (An Act to amend the National Defence Act, the Criminal Code, the Sex Offender Information Registration Act and the Criminal Records Act)--March 29, 2007

Ways and Means--The Budget

The Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, presented the second budget of the 39th Parliament to the House on March 19, 2007. Noteworthy among the provisions of the budget were measures intended to address the so-called "fiscal imbalance".

An NDP subamendment condemning the budget for failing to reduce the "prosperity gap" between the rich and the poor in Canada was defeated on March 21, 2007 (YEAS: 274, NAYS: 29).

A Liberal amendment condemned the budget for alleged failures to propose measures to support disadvantaged citizens and aboriginals; to provide broad-based income tax; to support students and child care; and to advancing significant measures to deal with greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental priorities. The amendment also accused the government of "gross exaggerations of increased federal transfers to provinces and other orders of government'. The amendment was defeated (YEAS: 109, NAYS: 175) on March 26, 2007. The following day, the main motion in support of the budget was adopted (YEAS: 176, NAYS: 119) with the support of the Bloc Quebecois.

One casualty of the budget debate was the Member for Thunder Bay (Joe Comuzzi), who was expelled from the Liberal caucus on March 22, 2007, after announcing his intention to vote in favour of the budget. Mr. Comuzzi had stated publicly that he supported the Government's focus on health-care spending and had declared that if the budget provided funds for Thunder Bay's new Molecular Medicine Research Centre he would to vote for it.

Business of Supply

Supply motions subsequent to that of February 1, 2007 (see above) on the Kyoto Accord:

1. called upon the government to provide the government of Quebec with $328 million to enable it to implement its plan to meet the Kyoto Protocol targets (BQ--debated February 8, 2007; adopted February 13, 2007);

2. condemned all of the current government's major policy and legislative initiatives (Lib--debated February 15, 2007; adopted February 20, 2007);

3. called upon the government to implement a national anti-poverty strategy (NDP--debated and negatived on February 20, 2007);

4. condemned the government's immigration policies (Lib--debated February 22, 2007; adopted February 27, 2007);

5. denounced the "laisser-faire attitude of the government" in its negotiations with Boeing (BQ--debated March 1, 2007...