Senate.

• Author: Hollins, Max
• Position: Legislative Reports

Legislation

The recent trend towards increased numbers of amendments to bills in the Senate, and consequential exchanges of messages between the houses, continued during this period. In April, the Commons agreed to three Senate amendments to Bill C-25, An Act to amend the Canada Business Corporations Act and other Acts. In May, the Senate agreed to 15 Commons amendments to Bill S-5, An Act to amend the Tobacco Act and other Acts.

Also in May, the Commons agreed with three Senate amendments to Bill C-49, the Transportation Modernization Act, amended three others and disagreed with another seven. On May 9, the Senate adopted a motion authorizing the Transport and Communications Committee to prepare the reasons for the Senate's insistence on two of its amendments, bringing into play the rarely-used provisions of rule 16-3, which requires that if the Senate insists on its amendments to a C-bill, a committee must develop the reasons for the insistence. The reasons were contained in the committee's 11th report, which the Senate adopted on May 10. The adoption of the report triggered the message returning the bill to the Commons, indicating that the Senate agreed to the three Commons amendments, did not insist on five of its own amendments and insisted on two of them. When the Commons again disagreed with the two amendments, the Senate did not further insist on them.

During this quarter, the Senate continued to give considerable attention to Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act. The Social Affairs Committee proposed 34 amendments in a report that was presented and adopted on May 30. The following day, the Senate adopted a motion that structured debate at third reading. Proceedings on each of five specific sitting days were limited to a particular theme, with speeches or amendments not generally relating to a day's theme being out of order. Senators could speak on each of these days and propose amendments, although shorter speaking times were established. These thematic debates were followed by a general debate, with normal rules applying, on June 7. During these proceedings at third reading five additional amendments were agreed. In June, the Commons agreed to 23 Senate amendments and parts of two others, amended one amendment, and disagreed with 11 and parts of two other Senate amendments. The Senate agreed with the Commons amendment and did not insist on its amendments.

The following bills received Royal Assent by written declaration during this quarter...