Senate (considered several government bills).

• Author: Robert, Charles

The eight-week period between the resumption of sitting following Easter break and the adjournment for summer is usually a busy one for the Senate. In addition to debating legislation already before the Senate from the House of Commons as well as several Senate initiated items, there are several Government bills sent to the Senate for speedy consideration prior to the summer adjournment. The scale of the workload can be measured by the fact the Senate adopted eighteen Government Commons bills during this period, out of a total of thirty-one enacted thus far this session. Twelve of these Government bills arrived in the Senate following Easter, and of these six arrived in June including two supply bills. Four other Government bills that arrived recently are still on the Order Paper and will be taken up when the Senate returns to business in late September.

Of the Government bills considered by the Senate, several are of particular interest. One is Bill C-4, an Act to amend the Canadian Wheat Board Act. The bill which changed the governing structure of the Wheat Board and made its buying operations more flexible generated enormous interest in the prairie provinces. The Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry travelled extensively to gather testimony from farmers and others who either defended or opposed the existence of the Wheat Board. In the end, the Committee proposed several amendments to the bill which sought to accommodate the contending views. These amendments were adopted by the Senate and subsequently accepted by the House of Commons.

Another bill, Bill C-36, seeking to implement numerous provisions of the February budget, drew considerable attention because of the federal Government's $2.5 billion millennium scholarship fund to assist post-secondary students in financial need. Debate in the Senate concentrated on the complaint that the establishment of the fund constituted an intrusion in the field of education, a domain of exclusive provincial jurisdiction. Two amendments were proposed to the third reading motion of the bill, but in the end, the bill was adopted without amendment on June 17 and was among those bills that received Royal Assent on June 18, the last day of sitting before the summer adjournment.

Still another bill that was the object of some amendments was Bill C-19, affecting the Canada Labour Code (Part I) as well as some other Acts. Specifically, Senator Noel Kinsella objected to the drafting of the bill and the...