Abstract
In recent decades, omnibus legislation has been on the rise in the Canadian Parliament, generating much concern within opposition parties and among the media. In reaction to the perceived abuses of this legislative technique under Conservative Prime Minister Harper, all major opposition parties promised to curb this practice during the 2015 election campaign. Actually, the new Liberal government did not abandon the practice of omnibus legislation, but granted the Speaker of the House the power to divide an omnibus bill into distinct parts for the purposes of voting, and to do the same for the portions of budget implementation bills that had not been announced in the budget speech. This power has been used numerous times since then. However, one of the measures included in an omnibus bill later landed the government into serious trouble, contributing to the electoral setback of 2019, when the Liberals were reduced to a minority position.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
On this episode, see Franks (1987), pp. 33–34.
- 3.
Ireland once passed a statute of that nature that repealed no less than 3225 statutes, arguably a world record. See the Statute Law Revision Act 2007, Acts of the Oireachtas No. 28 of 2007. http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2007/act/28/enacted/en/pdf.
- 4.
Cited by Dodek (2017), pp. 15–16.
- 5.
See Table 1 in appendix on budget implementation bills 2001 to 2019.
- 6.
See Cockram (2014), pp. 37–39 and 42–43.
- 7.
Re Supreme Court Act, ss 5 and 6, [2014] SCC 21.
- 8.
On the use of such weapons, see Saint-Pierre et al. (2015).
- 9.
In Canadian parliamentary jargon, these are known as “supply day motions”. Twenty-two days in each year are “allotted”, i.e. set aside within government business for debating a motion selected by one of the opposition parties. A distinctive feature is that the motion debated must be put and voted on, in contrast with private members’ motions, which are routinely talked out after one hour. See Standing Order (SO) 81 para. (10) to (22).
- 10.
Debates of the House of Commons, October 16, 1012, pp. 11012–11072. https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/House/411/Debates/162/HAN162-E.PDF#page=6.
- 11.
- 12.
Bill C-654, An Act to amend the Parliament of Canada Act (omnibus bills), First reading, February 19, 2015, http://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/412/Private/C-654/C-654_1/C-654_1.PDF.
- 13.
See New Democratic Party of Canada (2015), p. 55. The party is commonly known as the NDP.
- 14.
See Liberal Party of Canada (2015), p. 30.
- 15.
See Green Party of Canada (2015).
- 16.
Canadian elections are held under the First-Past-the-Post system, which explains the discrepancy between the popular vote and the seats won by each party. Ironically, Justin Trudeau’s brave promise, that the 2015 election would be the last one held under that system, fell by the wayside in less than 15 months.
- 17.
Debates of the Senate, Dec. 4, 2015, p. 5. The Throne Speech is read in the Senate chamber.
- 18.
Bill C-15, Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 1, S.C. 2016 c. 7. http://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-15/C-15_4/C-15_4.PDF.
- 19.
Debates of the House of Commons, April 21, 2016, p. 2544.
- 20.
Bill C-29, Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 2, SC 2016 c. 12, http://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-29/C-29_4/C-29_4.PDF.
- 21.
Debates of the House of Commons, October 28, 2016, p. 6297.
- 22.
Bill C-44, Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 1. S.C. 2017, c. 20. http://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-44/C-44_4/C-44_4.PDF.
- 23.
- 24.
The Conservative House Leader suggested during the debate that the negative attitude of the Conservative Members had less to do with the substance of the new Standing Orders than with the way the government had handled the issue in recent weeks. See Debates of the House of Commons, pp. 12903–12905.
- 25.
Debates of the House of Commons, June 19, 2017, pp. 12899–12915, https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/House/421/Debates/197/HAN197-E.PDF; Idem, June 20, 2017, pp. 12976–13005, https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/House/421/Debates/198/HAN198-E.PDF.
- 26.
Journals of the House of Commons, June 20, 2017, pp. 2010–2016. For the text of the rejected NDP amendment on omnibus bills, see pp. 2004–2005. https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/House/421/Journals/198/Journal198.PDF.
- 27.
Hon. Bardish Chagger, Debates of the House of Commons, June 19, 2017, p. 12901.
- 28.
Canada, Department of Justice, Income Tax Act, R.S.C., 1985, c.1 (5th Suppl.); Criminal Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46. The most recent consolidations of both statutes can be found at https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/I-3.3.pdf, and https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/C-46.pdf.
- 29.
Duhaime.org, “Canadian Legal History: 1892 Canada’s Criminal Code”. http://www.duhaime.org/LawMuseum/CanadianLegalHistory/LawArticle-94/1892-Canadas-Criminal-Code.aspx.
- 30.
Text of Bill C-56 in http://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-56/C-56_1/C-56_1.PDF. This Bill died on the order paper.
- 31.
Debates of the House of Commons, October 31, 2017, pp. 14747–14748.
- 32.
Idem, November 7, 2017, pp. 15116–15117.
- 33.
Text of Bill C-59 in http://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-59/C-59_3/C-59_3.PDF.
- 34.
Debates of the House of Commons, November 20, 2017, pp. 15333–15335 (point of order raised) and p. 15344 (Speaker’s ruling).
- 35.
Debates of the House of Commons, June 11, 2018 (point of order raised), p. 20664; Idem, June 12, 2018 (government reply to the point of order), p. 20775; Idem, June 18, 2018 (Deputy Speaker’s decision), pp. 21198–21200. No such request had been made at second reading.
- 36.
Bill C-69, An Act to enact the Impact Assessment Act and the Canadian Energy Regulator Act, to amend the Navigation Protection Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, now SC 2019 c. 28.
- 37.
Debates of the House of Commons, February 27, 2018, pp. 17430–17431.
- 38.
Debates of the House of Commons, March 1, 2018, pp. 17574–17576. The Speaker decided to divide the Bill in the following way: part 3 and clauses 85, 186, 187 and 195 of clause 4 were voted together; the remainder of part 4, as well as parts 1 & 2 were voted together.
- 39.
Debates of the House of Commons, June 20, 2018, pp. 21379–21381.
- 40.
Debates of the House of Commons, Sept. 29, 2020, pp. 269–270.
- 41.
Bill C-49, Transportation Modernization Act, SC 2018 c. 10. http://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-49/C-49_4/C-49_4.PDF.
- 42.
- 43.
Bill C-63, Budget Implementation Act, 2017, No. 2, SC 2017, c. 33, http://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-63/C-63_4/C-63_4.PDF.
- 44.
Debates of the House of Commons, November 3, 2017, pp. 14969–14971. See also Debates, November 7, 2017, pp. 15070–15081, where the other opposition parties agreed with the point of order raised and the government stated its case against it.
- 45.
Idem, November 8, 2017, pp. 15165–15167. A short notice can be found in Canadian Parliamentary Review, 41 (1), Spring 2018, p. 48.
- 46.
Debates of the House of Commons, November 8, 2017, pp. 15182–15189.
- 47.
Idem, December 1, 2017, pp. 15905–15907.
- 48.
Wherry (2017c).
- 49.
Bill C-74, Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1, SC 2018 c. 12. http://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-74/C-74_4/C-74_4.PDF.
- 50.
See Aiello (2018).
- 51.
Debates of the House of Commons, April 23, 2018, pp. 18610–18611 (point of order) and 186555–186556 (ruling).
- 52.
Blatchford (2018).
- 53.
Bill C-86, Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 2, SC 2018 c. 27. http://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-86/C-86_2/C-86_2.PDF.
- 54.
Debates of the House of Commons, October 31, 2018, pp. 23119–23120.
- 55.
Idem, November 5, 2018, pp. 23310–23311.
- 56.
Idem, November 6, 2018 pp. 23378–23379.
- 57.
Idem, December 3, 2018, pp. 24390–24392.
- 58.
Bill C-97, Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No.1. SC 2019 c. 29. https://www.parl.ca/Content/Bills/421/Government/C-97/C-97_4/C-97_4.PDF.
- 59.
Debates of the House of Commons, April 10, 2019, pp. 26942–26944 and April 12, 2019, pp. 27035–27036 (point of order), and April 29, 2019, pp. 27122–27123 (ruling).
- 60.
- 61.
Critics of the reform, however, point out that so-called “Independent” senators voted with the government 95% of the time, compared with 78% of Senate Liberals. The full set of figures can be found in O’Brien et al. (2017).
- 62.
Author’s computations. Only government bills whose consideration in the Senate had been completed (i.e given third reading) are included in these figures.
- 63.
Massicotte (2016).
- 64.
- 65.
Debates of the Senate, May 3, 2012, p. 1753; Idem, October 30, 2012, p. 2707; Idem, November 5, 2013, pp. 398–399; Idem, April 9, 2014, pp. 1354–1356; Idem, October 30, 2014, pp. 2347–2351; Idem, May 14, 2015, p. 3384. The only exception was Bill C-60, which was again pre-studied exclusively by the National Finance committee (Debates of the Senate, May 2, 2013, p. 3844). No explanation was given for that change, which proved temporary.
- 66.
Since 2016, under the Senate reform package adopted by the present administration, the Senator responsible for introducing and piloting government legislation in the Senate is now styled the “Representative of the Government in the Senate”, stands as a “non affiliated”, and does not sit in Cabinet. Hitherto, this role was fulfilled by the Leader of the Government in the Senate, who most of the time had the status of a cabinet minister.
- 67.
Debates of the Senate, May 3, 2016, p. 566.
- 68.
Journals of the Senate, November 22, 2016, p. 980.
- 69.
Journals of the Senate, May 8, 2018, pp. 1870–1871.
- 70.
Debates of the Senate, April 24, 2018, p. 5270.
- 71.
Debates of the Senate, November 7, 2018, pp. 6749–6750; May 2, 2019, pp. 7969–7970.
- 72.
Liberal Senators were expelled from the Liberal caucus by Justin Trudeau in 2014, and can no longer be counted as reliable supporters of the present Liberal administration. Since 2015, no one has been added to the dwindling group of “Liberal Senators”. In November 2019, the nine remaining Liberals chose to call themselves the “Progressive Senators Group”. This group quickly lost official party status following two retirements and one defection. For the first time since Confederation, a house formerly nicknamed the “Grit Heaven” includes no Liberals.
- 73.
Debates of the Senate, May 8, 2017, p. 2987.
- 74.
Idem.
- 75.
Debates of the Senate, June 14, 2017, p. 3414.
- 76.
Idem p. 3419.
- 77.
See Platt (2017).
- 78.
Senator Harder’s background as a consummate government insider deserves mention. His distinguished career in the federal public service included 16 years as Deputy Minister, heading the Departments of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Solicitor General, Public Security, and the Treasury Board Secretariat. Harder was the head of Trudeau’s transition team in 2015, eliciting the following comment from the upper reaches of the bureaucracy: “his experience sends the message that the Liberals understand how government works”. See Anonymous (2015). He was appointed to the Senate the next year and was a key figure in the new Senate envisaged by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
- 79.
Idem, pp. 33–34. The examples listed are worth quoting: “Measures affecting the right to strike for some federal employees and, notoriously, amendments to the Supreme Court Act in response to the controversy surrounding the appointment of a new Justice. Bill C-9, the BIA of 2010, was a 880-page document that notably authorized the Government to sell off the Atomic Energy of Canada’s business activities; reduced the scope of the Environmental Protection Act and the number of projects requiring environmental assessments; and eliminated the monopoly of Canada Post over some kinds of mail. And not one of these items was included in the budget. In 2007, Bill C-10 contained 21 lines in a 568 page document effectively imposing censorship on the Canadian film industry”.
- 80.
Harder (2018), pp. 34–35.
- 81.
She ran as an Independent in her riding in the October general election, and was re-elected.
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Massicotte, L. (2021). Canada: If Controversial, Omnibus Legislation Is Here to Stay. In: Bar-Siman-Tov, I. (eds) Comparative Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Omnibus Legislation. Legisprudence Library, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-72748-2_11
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