End of Parliamentary Session Recap
Plus Canada Day Open House, my question on wasteful expenditures by National Defence, the recent passport chaos, and more
End of Parliamentary Session Recap
After eight months, Parliament has risen for the summer. It has been eventful since the conclusion of the 2021 election, as we dealt with the fallout from the collapse of Afghanistan, the first-ever use of the Emergencies Act in Canada to end the trucker protests, the return of war to Europe as Russia invaded Ukraine, and a cost-of-living crisis spurred on by rampant inflation across the developed world. Here is the important takeaway: this was a chaotic spring and the federal government is in chaos.
The Liberal-NDP deal, engineered to keep the Liberal government in power until 2025, has instead brought a feeling of inertia in the halls of government. Passport Canada and Service Canada are continuing to provide delayed and substandard services for Canadians wishing to travel after two years of pandemic restrictions. The Liberal government is also proving itself to be singularly unproductive in terms of legislation passed in the post-pandemic economic distress and chaos. The cost-of-living crisis and the rapid and sustained increase in inflation have hurt Canadians right in their pocketbooks and it does not look like their federal government is rushing to respond. Inflation hit 7.7% in May, made worse by continued federal deficits in the last two budgets. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is struggling to fast-track Afghan refugee applications, almost a year after the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Supports for Ukraine have also seen delays in implementation. Other departments are struggling to handle various files under their portfolio. One only needs to take a look at defense procurement in Canada to find incompetency so rampant that it has become banal. It’s fair for Canadians to wonder whether their government is just mailing it in before the summer parliamentary recess.
Let us talk about the legislative productivity of this session of Parliament. The current Liberal government has been singularly chaotic and lethargic in producing new ideas and responding to the inflation crisis. Now, by my count and per the www.parl.ca website, the federal government has 29 government bills. Of those 28 government bills, only 13 have passed and become law or await royal assent as the final step with another 3 pending further debate and study at the Senate. Compare it to the post-2008/2009 economic response of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government during the global financial crisis and the numbers are not close. Between January 2009 and December 2009, a whole year, the Conservative government has proposed in Parliament 64 government bills. Of those 64, 31 were passed into law with another 5 left pending in the Senate for further review and debate. This was in the year immediately following the crisis. The Liberal government’s current lack of productivity comes over two years after COVID-19 first entered Canada.
They still have an opportunity to catch up in the fall when Parliament returns for several weeks between September and December. In the fall, we usually see the federal government provide what’s called the Fall Economic Statement which serves as a sort of update to the budget. Around that time, we also see the second budget implementation law provided to Parliament to complete the implementation of the annual budget. In the fall, I expect the federal government will continue to push its firearms red tape Bill C-21. I also expect the Senate to conduct a further review of the censorship law C-11 along with significant amendments forcing the return of that law back to the House of Commons where the MPs can have further debate and review of the Senate amendments. But these are weak bills that require substantial change prior to implementation. Time is needed to ensure any passage of policy in Parliament is well debated and worded to have the appropriate effect intended. This will be time taken away from focusing on the rapid increase in consumer price inflation and other objectives. It is hard to see if the Liberal government’s productivity will increase come the fall if these bills remain the focus.
Beyond productivity, there are other observations I have of this session of Parliament. Firstly, the federal Liberal government has entirely abandoned its 2015 promise to stop the practice of creating omnibus budget bills that have non-budgetary policy or legislative initiatives. They have broken that promise. While some will point out the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper incrementally broadened the practice, they never promised not to engage in omnibus budget bills. This is Liberal government hypocrisy. Secondly, the Liberal government is increasing its use of procedural means to shut down debate in Parliament. These go by the name of time allocation and closure. In the few months we have had working in Parliament, the Liberals have used it 17 times by my count. Again, you can point fingers at previous Conservative practices but, to reiterate, they did not promise to stop or never use it. This is the same idea behind the broken Liberal government promise to never prorogue Parliament which they promptly did in 2020 to shut down a parliamentary committee investigating the WE Charity controversy.
Lastly, regarding my own legislative initiatives, I remain thankful the federal government was willing to find a negotiated solution on Bill C-3 and include a good portion of my private member’s Bill C-211 to expand unpaid bereavement leave for parents in federally regulated sectors of the economy. I have also co-seconded laws to amend the Aeronautics Act to make collision avoidance systems mandatory on smaller aircraft, another to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to protect against discrimination based on political belief, and finally a law to expand the work of the Auditor General of Canada to the Bank of Canada. I have also been highly critical of the federal government’s failed First-Time Home Buyer Incentive and have a motion in Parliament noting the program’s series of failures. Legislative motions do not change laws but serve as an indication to the public service and the federal government that a substantial number of parliamentarians want to see action on certain policy files. In that spirit, I have co-sponsored motions across the aisle New Democrat initiatives to make the disability tax credit a refundable tax credit to better serve disabled persons with low incomes, and another legislative motion on a national plan to address endometriosis which is a debilitating and chronic condition affecting up to 1 in 10 women.
Thank you for allowing me the privilege of serving as your Member of Parliament for a third term. I am constantly reminded of what a great honour it is to serve residents in the halls of Parliament. Have a happy summer, a very Happy Canada Day and I hope to see many of you at community Stampede breakfasts to hear from you and a Yahoo!
Censorship Bill C-11 passes in Parliament, now under review in the Senate
This week, Parliament voted to pass the Liberal government’s censorship Bill C-11. Conservatives voted against the bill but the Liberals, NDP and Bloc voted together to pass it. It has now been sent to the Senate for review and the heritage minister informed MPs that Senators would be allowed to take their time and conduct a thorough review of the legislation. I will be following the Senate proceedings closely to ensure that our rights to free speech and free, neutral access to the internet will be protected.
Nay: 117 ❌
Yea: 208 ✅
Chaos at Passport Canada
I have received many emails and messages from constituents about the passport application chaos that is happening across the country now. At many of Canada’s passport offices, Canadians are forced to line up starting in the early hours of the morning at 3-4 am and many are often left waiting for hours on end with no progress. Some offices have even reached 7 hours of waiting time just to renew one passport. The Liberal government has claimed that it was a sudden ramp-up in travel and passport renewals that is causing this chaos. Yet, the numbers now are less than pre-pandemic. From 2013 to 2018, Passport Canada could issue roughly 90,000-98,000 passports a week. The federal government recently revealed they had received 542,000 applications over the last ten weeks, which means an average of 54,200 applications a week. Fewer applications, more waiting times. The federal government had the data to see this coming and did nothing to solve this. According to screened passenger data from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), the numbers of screened passengers have been gradually ticking up since August of last year, numbers comparable to the current period of travel. The data was there and the Liberal government did nothing to prepare for it. They need to take action now and hire more workers to handle these delays. Canadians should not have to line up in this way to access a basic necessity.
Foreign general had taxpayer-funded visit to Canada approved by National Defence officials
Part of my duties as a parliamentarian and a member of the Official Opposition is to study legislation and then hold the federal cabinet ministers accountable for their expenditures and policy positions. I do so in several ways, one of them is through filing access to information requests (ATIPs). Documents I recently received from National Defence from filing such a request reveal that Pakistan’s Chief of the Army Staff had a visit to Canada approved for a taxpayer funded trip in 2020, at a cost reaching as high as $50,000. The trip was only stopped due to COVID-19. This is an exorbitant amount of money to be spent on foreign officer visits, especially when these visits only happen for a few days. I plan on investigating this further once Parliament returns in September and figure out just how much money has been spent by National Defence for these types of visits. This is an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds and it should not be happening.
Canada Day Open House
July 1st marks 155 years since Confederation and the birth of this great country. To celebrate all that is great about Canada, I would like to invite all constituents to the Canada Day Open House at my Calgary office on July 1 at 10am-12pm. Feel free to stop by to share your concerns and feedback and more importantly, let us celebrate Canada together. I look forward to seeing you there!
Resuming Debate: Returning in September
Because Parliament has recessed for the summer, my newsletter Resuming Debate will return in September prior to the resumption of Parliament. The next issue will come out on September 16, 2022. Have a great summer!