| Historical Information |
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| This post is about a previous Session of Parliament. Any legislation here that did not receive Royal Assent has been terminated. |
Happy Wednesday everyone!
Welcome back to another House summary. Everyone’s back from their summer break, so there’s not too much new that happened. There are some updates on things that fell through the cracks in my posts earlier though, so there’s a bit of catch-up in here!
Committee Reports
OGGO Report 13 – Request for an audit of GC Strategies
The Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO) has asked that the Auditor General do a full audit of GC Strategies as well as any other companies created by the cofounders of GC.
For those who have forgotten, GC Strategies is the company behind ArriveCan. There’s been a lot of problems with the amount of money GC got for ArriveCan and how little work they actually did on it, among other problems. The OGGO is now asking that the Auditor General do a full audit of the money and contracts that GC has received.
This report was accepted with all parties voting in support, so we should be seeing a detailed audit of GC’s spending at some point in the future.
HUMA Report 13 – Housing Crisis in Canada
The Committee on Human Resources, Skills, and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities (HUMA) sent a report to the House recognizing that Canada is experiencing a housing crisis and urging the feds to take immediate action to address homelessness.
This report was accepted with everyone voting in support of it.
Bill Updates
C-322 – National Framework for a School Food Program Act
C-322 has come back from its committee review unchanged. The House accepted this and it will now go for its Third Reading. If you have opinions on this, either in support or against, this is your last chance to contact your MP and let them know!
C-379 – The Combating Motor Vehicle Theft Act
C-379 went up for its Second Reading vote and failed, with 149 votes in support and 170 votes against. Because the vote failed this Act will not proceed.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 147 | 1 |
| Conservative | 117 | 0 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 30 | 0 | 0 |
| NDP | 1 | 21 | 0 |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Independent | 1 | 1 | 0 |
The Liberals are against it because mandatory minimum sentences just end up turning into Charter challenges and get reduced anyway. Imposing a stricter minimum sentence just opens up that issue again, and the Supreme Court ruled against it ages ago.
The Bloc support sending this Bill to committee for review. They don’t believe it’ll actually do enough to address the issue of auto theft, but they’re willing to see what comes up during committee review.
The NDP are also against bringing back minimum sentencing and would rather see stronger measures taken against organized crime, including making it more difficult for criminal groups to hide behind a numbered company (and as such make it harder for them to ship stolen vehicles out of the country). They also want to see measures taken to ensure car manufacturers are including better security measures in new vehicles.
Of note here is that Charlie Angus (NDP, Ontario, Timmins—James Bay) voted against the rest of his party in support of this Act.
C-273 – An Act to amend the Criminal Code (Corinne’s Quest and the protection of children)
When we last saw C-273 it had been sent to the Committee on Justice and Human Rights for review. It has now come back with only a small change, having it come into effect one month after receiving Royal Assent. The House accepted this change without a vote, so it will now proceed to its Third Reading. If you have an opinion on it, this is your last chance to contact your MP and let them know!
S-252 – Jury Duty Appreciation Week Act
S-252 has completed its run through the Senate without change, and is now waiting for its First Reading in the House.
C-270 – The Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation Act
C-270 went up for its Second Reading vote and passed with everyone voting in favour. It will now be reviewed by the Committee on Justice and Human Rights (JUST).
C-277 – The National Strategy on Brain Injuries Act
C-277 sent up for its Second Reading vote and passed with everyone voting in support. It will now be reviewed by the Committee on Health (HESA).
C-353 – The Foreign Hostage Takers Accountability Act
C-353 went up for its Second Reading vote and passed, 173 in favour and 141 opposed.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 3 | 140 | 6 |
| Conservative | 113 | 0 | 4 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 30 | 0 | 2 |
| NDP | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 1 | 0 |
The Liberals are against C-353 on the grounds that they’re already working on diplomatic ways to end arbitrary detention, and don’t think legislation is going to help much with that.
Worth noting here that Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Liberal, Ontario, Beaches—East York), Anthony Housefather (Liberal, Quebec, Mount Royal), and Marco Mendicino (Liberal, Ontario, Eglinton—Lawrence) voted against the rest of their party on this one.
The Bloc want this Bill to be sent to committee for review, calling out that it creates grey areas that need to be ironed out. They call out what I had mentioned, that none of these measures would actually have helped with the two Michaels.
The NDP also want the Bill studied in committee to see what comes up before they decide if they want to fully support it or not.
C-353 has been sent to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (FAAE) for review.
C-368 – An Act to amend the Food and Drugs Act (natural health products)
C-368 went up for its Second Reading vote and passed with 171 voting in favour and 146 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 0 | 146 | 4 |
| Conservative | 116 | 0 | 1 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 27 | 0 | 3 |
| NDP | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 0 | 0 |
The Liberals are opposed to this Act as it reverses regulations they put in place. They call out that since the new regulations have been put in place 36 inspections were done on manufacturers and importers, all of them had compliance issues, and 15 had severe compliance issues. They also call out that there have been 100 recalls of products due to safety concerns, including contamination and the presence of harmful substances.
The Bloc support this Act because the current regulations were put in a budget bill, and they don’t like that. They also argue that all those inspections were done on areas where it was already known there were problems, so of course they found a lot of problems.
The NDP have the same complaint, that new regulations on natural health products should have been introduced in their own bill and not as part of an omnibus budget bill.
C-368 is now before the Standing Committee on Health (HESA) for review.
C-377 – An Act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act (need to know)
C-377 went up for its Second Reading vote and passed with 173 in favour and 143 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 3 | 142 | 6 |
| Conservative | 113 | 0 | 4 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 30 | 0 | 2 |
| NDP | 23 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 2 | 1 | 0 |
The Liberals are against this Act because they want to make sure appropriate measures are in place to prevent people from getting information they shouldn’t have. Worth noting here that Nathaniel Erksine-Smith (Ontario, Beaches—East York), Anthony Housefather (Quebec, Mount Royal), and Sherry Romanado (Quebec, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne) voted against their party on this.
The Bloc support it on the grounds that the government gets to decide what security clearance is needed to access information, and that makes it harder to get information about what the government is doing if they put something at too high of a clearance level, or in this case simply decides that you don’t need that information. They’re cautious about how this could be abused though, and would rather just see the government stop putting things at a clearance level higher than necessary.
For some reason the NDP didn’t get a speech on this one. Not sure what happened there. I do see a question about how other countries are dealing with issues like this.
C-377 is now before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC).
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Just out of curiousity, why haven’t you written about Bill C-223?
I have! 😀 It’s been locked up in its Second Reading stage for a while now, only getting up for its actual vote now.
I’ll admit it’s been out for a while and it’s easy for people to forget about things with how long some of these processes take. I haven’t figured out a good way to keep up on updates when nothing really happens with something. I could start adding notes when something gets a date for a vote, but right now most of those votes would come up on the day I make these posts. Maybe I’ll start making posts at the start of the week about upcoming votes, that might work…
Thank you for the reply! Appreciate what you do!