Bill Progress
C-226 – The National Strategy Respecting Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice Act – went up for its Third Reading vote last week and passed with 179 in favour and 145 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 150 | 0 | 2 |
| Conservative | 0 | 114 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 0 | 31 | 1 |
| NDP | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Green Party | 2 | 0 | 0 |
This vote matches the Second Reading vote, so there isn’t much to say about it. Only noteworthy thing is that C-226 was unchanged during committee review, so the Bloc’s concerns weren’t addressed and they’re still opposed to it.
Having completed its Third Reading C-226 is now being looked at by the Senate.
C-234 – An Act to amend the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act – went up for its Third Reading Vote as well. It passed 176 in favour and 146 against, and will now move on to the Senate.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 3 | 145 | 2 |
| Conservative | 114 | 0 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 30 | 0 | 1 |
| NDP | 25 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Green Party | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Again this vote pretty closely matches the last one. Of note is that two more Liberal MPs – Heath MacDonald (PEI, Malpeque) and Robert Morrissey (PEI, Egmont) – have joined Kody Blois (Nova Scotia, Kings—Hants) in supporting C-234. Both Heath and Robert had voted against it during the Second Reading.
Kody actually spoke about C-234 this time around, and his big argument is that (after the amendments to ensure the heating only applies to things like livestock and drying grain) C-234 is addressing an oversight in the original setup for the Greenhouse Taxes. He points out that, though there are indeed rebates in place to help farmers deal with the costs of the tax, they aren’t equitable. The example he gives is that a dairy-farmer might not be involved in drying grain, so they wouldn’t be affected by the extra cost, but would get the same rebate that someone who does have the extra cost for drying grain gets.
Worth mentioning, as I didn’t catch it the first time, but Kody is the chair of the Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food and as such had a hand in the amendments to C-234.
S-203 – The Federal Framework on Autism Spectrum Disorder Act – was granted Royal Assent.
Closing Fun
That largely covers things for the week! There was a lot more time spent discussing the Senate’s amendments to C-11 and the House’s response to them. The Conservatives proposed a Motion to scrap C-11 and it failed with everyone else voting against it, then the House’s response passed with the Conservatives and Green Party voting against it. I’m having some difficulty finding the exact wording of the amendments the House agrees/disagrees with so I don’t have much for you on that end right now. I’ll try to get a post up regarding that as soon as I can track things down.
The House is adjourned for the next two weeks, so as usual I’ll have some other topics to cover in the meantime!
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