The Liberal government managed to pass some of its most noteworthy pieces of legislation before Parliament rose this week for its over two-month summer recess, but several impactful bills will still be pending when the House of Commons reconvenes in September.
Both of the government’s online-regulation bills—the Online Streaming Act and the Online News Act—passed in Parliament’s final weeks, bringing to a close over a year of debate on the matter.
The government also managed to pass its Budget Implementation Act despite heavy opposition from the Conservatives, who filibustered the bill’s passage for weeks while calling on the Liberals to introduce a plan for eliminating deficit spending.
However, several bills will be stuck in legislative limbo over the summer, most notably Bill C-21, the Liberals’ contentious gun-restriction legislation.
Bill C-21
Bill C-21 passed in the House of Commons in May, has since
passed second reading in the Senate, and will undergo consideration by the Standing Senate Committee on National Security once Parliament comes back into session.
The pending legislation will amend the Firearms Act and introduce a new
definition of what the government considers to be prohibited “assault-style” firearms. The new
definition will cover all non-handguns that discharge “centre-fire ammunition in a semi-automatic manner; was originally designed with a detachable cartridge magazine with a six-cartridge or more capacity; and that is designed and manufactured on or after the day on which the legislation takes effect.”
The bill will also bring
back a firearms committee to classify guns to be sold on the market.
In addition, the legislation will enshrine
in law a handgun-transfer freeze that cabinet put in place in 2022 through an Order in Council.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino has called it the “most significant gun control legislation in Canada in a generation.”
Bill C-48
Introduced late during Parliament’s spring session, Bill C-48 is the government’s attempt at reforming the federal bail system that has been receiving months of heavy criticism from opposition parties and provincial premiers.The pending legislation,
yet to have its second reading in the House, proposes a number of
changes to Canada’s Criminal Code including a new clause that would “create a new reverse onus for serious repeat violent offending involving weapons” where the accused had been convicted of a similar offence within the previous five years.
It also
proposes expanding a current reverse onus for firearms convictions to include other indictable offences like unlawfully possessing a loaded or restricted weapon and stealing firearms.
If passed, it would require courts to consider an accused person’s violent criminal history and community safety record when making bail decisions.
Conservatives have
criticized the legislation, saying it won’t solve the current issue of violent, repeat offenders being released on bail before serving their entire prison sentence.
“They have not reversed catch and release,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on May 16. “[Bill C-48] does not guarantee that a repeat violent offender who is newly charged with a violent crime would stay in jail until the sentence is completed.”
The introduction of the bill in May
came after all the provincial premiers signed a joint letter in January calling on Ottawa to strengthen the federal bail system.
Bill C-50
Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson introduced Bill C-50, the Canadian Sustainable Jobs Act, less than a week before the House rose for the summer.
The bill is the Liberals’ so-called “just transition”
legislation that will aim to establish a federal plan for creating “sustainable” green-energy jobs for Canada’s oil and gas sector workers as Ottawa aims to reach national net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Criticism and concerns about the legislation have come from both the
opposition Conservatives and provincial premiers—with
both Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe saying they won’t implement the legislation if it passes into law.
“Alberta will not recognize, cooperate with or enforce any attempt to phase out our province’s oil and gas industry or its workforce,” Smith said in a June 15
statement. “This is non-negotiable.”
The provinces are concerned that the legislation will affect millions of jobs, as hinted at in a briefing
note prepared for Wilkinson in 2022.
The federal government has maintained the legislation will create jobs rather than destroy them.
“I do not believe that the challenge we are going to face is that there are workers who are displaced that will not find other good-paying jobs,” Wilkinson
told CBC News in January.
“I am actually quite worried that there are so many opportunities … we will not have enough workers to fill the jobs.”
Marnie Cathcart and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
