Roundup: Why the Bloc’s two-bill demand is actually impossible

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In advance of yesterday’s confidence votes, Bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet laid out his new conditions for support ongoing—government support for Bills C-282 and C-319, and for them to pass by October 29th. The problem? These are both private members’ bills, and the government has little control over when either can pass, and you would think that as parliamentarians who know the system and who like to pretend that they are the adults in the room would know that such a deadline is an impossible ask, but we are unfortunately in the stupidest timeline.

For starters, Bill C-282, which seeks to protect Supply Management in future trade negotiations, has already passed the House of Commons and is in the Senate, but senators don’t seem keen on passing it with any alacrity because they want a better sense of how this will tie the government in the future. The truth is that it can’t—you cannot actually bind a future government with legislation, so this is little more than a handwavey gesture that a future government can repeal at any point, making this a giant waste of everyone’s time and resources. But more to the point, as a private member’s bill, there is no mechanism in the Senate to speed it along, and certainly not one that the Government Leader in the Senate possesses. In fact, when the Conservatives tried to change the rules of the Senate on this in the Harper years, there was tremendous pushback and the attempt was dropped.

The other bill, C-319, is the bill to increase the OAS for seniors aged 65 to 74, for which there is no reasonable justification for (there are other mechanisms to deal with the needs of low-income seniors), and would cost something in the order of $3 billion per year. It passed the House of Commons at report stage yesterday, but again, it’s unlikely to pass third reading by October 29th even if it gets a royal recommendation, which it needs to spend money (which PMBs are normally forbidden to do). So if the government gives it the royal recommendation, and if they get it passed the House of Commons before the 29th, once again, there is no mechanism to speed its passage in the Senate. None, for very good reason. The Bloc made a big show yesterday of insisting that their demands were reasonable and that the bills were sufficiently advanced to make the deadline reasonable (when it’s really chosen so that an election could theoretically be held before Xmas), but they are in fact impossible, and nobody actually pointed that fact out yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Star has gamed out other demands from both the Bloc and the NDP for potential support going forward, and how feasible or how costly they are, and most of it remains in the domain of fantasyland. Price controls? Giving Quebec full immigration powers? Nope and nope.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian guided bombs struck Kramatorsk in the east, killing at least two and injuring twelve more. As well, 28 out of 32 Russian drones were downed overnight. Also in east Ukraine, Russian forces claim to have captured two more villages on the path to attacking the town of Vuhledar, considered a stronghold.

Good reads:

  • As expected, the government survived the first confidence vote of the sitting.
  • Justin Trudeau has appointed Haitian-born civil engineer Suze Youance to the Senate for Quebec.
  • Mélanie Joly continues to call for Canadians in Lebanon to leave, as two Canadians were killed in an airstrike. The government is planning an evacuation if needed.
  • In the push to get civil servants back to the office three days of the week is a lack of data on the effectiveness of the policy, or the productivity of hybrid work.
  • The total number of CRA employees fired for having fraudulently claimed CERB is now up to 289, with another 600 investigations ongoing.
  • A memo tabled at the Foreign Influence Inquiry shows that Global Affairs is concerned about their shrinking ability to counter foreign disinformation.
  • Oh noes—they may have to close Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill for the redevelopment of Block 2. That’s a real shame! (Close it for good, guys!)
  • Pierre Poilievre refuses to say just how he would balance the budget as soon as possible, and what he plans to cut in order to achieve it.
  • The NDP have re-activated their TikTok account in spite of warnings about privacy and security or foreign interference.
  • Kevin Carmichael points to the need for Canada to shift its thinking about trade as global forces reorient themselves from rules-based order to power-based.

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take looks at the OAS changes that the Bloc are demanding, and why they’re a problem for the government.

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4 thoughts on “Roundup: Why the Bloc’s two-bill demand is actually impossible”

  1. Link problem
    A memo tabled at the Foreign Influence Inquiry shows that Global Affairs is concerned about their shrinking ability to counter foreign disinformation.
    goes to the Melanie Joli story.

  2. $3 billion for increased old age security? Peanuts compared to the $13 billion Canada has committed since 2022 to that corrupt rathole otherwise known as Ukraine.

  3. I really hope the Liberals don’t capitulate to the demand for the OAS raise. The rationale for starting it at age 75 was sound.

    I wonder if the Bloc is “setting up to fail” as a panelist said on Power and Politics.

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