Happy Wednesday everyone!
Not a lot last week, the House just finalized the response to the Throne Speech. Details below!
Throne Speech
So when we left off last week the House was debating the response to the King’s Throne Speech. The Liberals wanted to send out the standard response you’d expect from this type of thing and the Conservatives wanted the King to tell the Liberals to release a budget. The Bloc successfully got the Conservative amendment changed to include a note about respecting provincial jurisdictions.
Subamendment – Jenny Kwan (NDP, British Columbia, Vancouver East)
Jenny also wants to make a change to the Conservative amendment, adding:
as well as Indigenous peoples
So she wants to make sure that the jurisdictions of Indigenous groups are respected as well.
This subamendment went up for a vote and passed with everyone voting in favour of it.
Final Amendment
So the final amendment to the Liberal’s response to the speech is now:
and we urge Your Majesty’s advisors to include a firm commitment to present to Parliament an economic update or budget this spring, before the House adjourns for the summer, that incorporates measures aimed at unleashing Canada’s economic potential, including full accountability of Canada’s finances, with respect for the areas of jurisdiction and the institutions of Quebec and the provinces, as well as Indigenous peoples
A vote was held and the amendment passed with 166 voting in favour and 164 voting against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 164 | 4 |
| Conservative | 137 | 0 | 3 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 21 | 0 | 1 |
| NDP | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Final Response
This brings us to the final version of the response to the Throne Speech which reads:
TO THE KING’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY:
MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN:
We, Your Majesty’s most loyal and dutiful subjects, the House of Commons of Canada, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Majesty for the gracious Speech which Your Majesty has addressed to both Houses of Parliament and we urge Your Majesty’s advisors to include a firm commitment to present to Parliament an economic update or budget this spring, before the House adjourns for the summer, that incorporates measures aimed at unleashing Canada’s economic potential, including full accountability of Canada’s finances, with respect for the areas of jurisdiction and the institutions of Quebec and the provinces, as well as Indigenous peoples.
Everyone agreed to submit this response without holding a vote for it, so we’ll never know who actually supports or opposes it.
Bill Updates
C-202 – An Act to amend the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act (supply management)
Unanimous consent was given to have C-202 skip every step in the House and go straight to the Senate.
Closing Fun
And that’s all for the week! The government is moving ahead with a lot of their own Bills and we’ll be trying to get those covered over the next few days. They’re long ones though so it’s a bit tricky.
Here’s the quote of the week, Garnett Genuis (Conservative, Alberta, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan) being particularly verbose while presenting petitions and Francis Scarpaleggia (The Speaker, Quebec, Lac-Saint-Louis) getting a bit tired of asking him to get to the point.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order, the rules are, as I think the member knows but misstated, that members cannot read an entire petition. Members are to summarize the petition, and in the course of that, reading from prepared notes that one has that relate to the petition is perfectly allowed. Historically, there was a time when members could not read anything in the House of Commons—
-Garnett Genuis
Summarizing can also mean making things succinct. I note that there is limited time for petitions and that other members would also like to present petitions.
I would ask the member to conclude as quickly as possible.-Francis Scarpaleggia
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