QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Economic and Fiscal Update 2021
March 23, 2022
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Gold, I have a question about Bill C-8 that is currently under debate in the House of Commons. That’s the bill to implement the fall fiscal update. Parts of the act are very complex, and within that act is another act called the Underused Housing Tax Act, and I think that’s where most of the complication resides.
I’m looking at the calendar for this fiscal year. There are eight days left in the parliamentary calendar for this fiscal year. If and when Bill C-8 arrives in the Senate, and most likely it will be “when,” will senators have time to thoroughly review this bill?
Yes, we will.
My supplementary question is that quite a few bills are being rushed through during the review cycle. I’m a member of the Finance Committee, and we are quite often rushed in reviewing money bills. Do you have any concern that there’s a perception that the Senate is becoming a rubber stamp for government legislation?
Thank you for your question. My concern is to do my part and my very best with my colleagues to ensure that the Senate has the opportunity to do the important work that we were summoned to do. That is often possible, and, indeed, the quality of our work is testament to that.
Colleagues in this chamber with many more years than I, and who have been here through different governments, will also know that certain circumstances inevitably recur. We’re approaching one now as we close the end of the fiscal year with regard to the supplementary estimates. There are other circumstances where bills come to us rather late in the day for a variety of reasons — in some cases bureaucratic and in others a function of the minority nature of Parliament.
Fortunately, at least to date, we as a chamber, in our wisdom and in the exercise of our wisdom in a responsible way, have undertaken pre-studies of such bills. This has allowed for an opportunity for senators and committees with expertise and institutional memory to dig in and advise the Senate as to their views when the bills finally do arrive.
We are not a rubber stamp. The history of our involvement in the Senate since 2015, as set out in my predecessor’s reports and simply in our own experience suggesting amendments to bills — a significant number of which were accepted in whole or in part — is testament to the fact that the Senate continues to do its job responsibly for the benefit of all Canadians.
