Ministers demonstrate to denounce the slowness of the Senate

Photo: Justin Tang La Presse canadienne Le chef du Bloc Québécois, Yves-Francois Blanchet, au centre, prend la parole lors d’une conférence de presse sur la pelouse de la colline du Parlement à Ottawa, le 10 octobre 2024.

Ottawa lawmakers from all parties, including Trudeau government ministers, joined ranchers Thursday to call on senators to speed up the passage of a supply management bill that could send the country into an election if it stalls.

Senators even took part in the protest targeting some of their colleagues on the Foreign Affairs Committee. This committee is still studying the Bloc Québécois bill C-282, 15 months after it was adopted by elected officials.

Quebec Senator Pierre J. Dalphond told Le Devoir that, in his opinion, the legitimacy of the Senate is “clearly” compromised by his colleagues’ stubbornness in taking up all their time.

“Here, we have a bill that is supported by almost all the members. […] I don’t understand why the senators on the committee refuse to hear that. It’s as if the system had taken an uncontrollable trajectory,” he laments.

The text in question aims to protect supply management for milk, poultry and eggs during future trade negotiations. Adopted by 262 MPs to 51 in June 2023, it is still under study by a Senate committee and will remain there at least until November, confirmed its president Peter Boehm when confronted by Le Devoir Wednesday.

The adoption of this text before the end of October is however one of the two conditions set by the Bloc Québécois to give its support to the Trudeau government during the next confidence votes, in a tense context of generalized disruption in the Commons. Senator Boehm is a staunch opponent of the text and has said he is not concerned about the risk of elections.

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Appeal to the government

Farmers who came to attend the rally in front of the federal Parliament on Thursday morning simply did not understand why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not forcing the hand of the senators he appointed.

“The government has the power to make a phone call and say: 'We approve the bill, we have listened to enough people on this,'” says Jacques Lafortune, president of the Union des producteurs de lait de Lanaudière.

The survival of many farms depends on this bill, he insists. Farmers fear that Canadian diplomats will be tempted to sell out the current supply management model in future free trade agreement negotiations.

“I don't understand how, even if all political parties have accepted [the text of C-82], a minority of senators can reverse it,” adds Mr. Lafortune, himself the owner of a herd of 200 cows.

“I find it really sad that it's the Senate that's slowing down the process. It's not normal, [since] it was adopted democratically. It's unacceptable that this vagueness continues,” adds Ana Maria Martin, a dairy producer from Montérégie who owns about sixty animals.

Ministers demonstrate

In a rare occurrence, several Liberal ministers were present at the rally criticizing senators appointed by their own government. Present were the Minister of Public Services and Procurement, Jean-Yves Duclos, as well as the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, Lawrence MacAulay.

Her predecessor, current Minister of National Revenue Marie-Claude Bibeau, spoke out, recalling that the Liberal Party was in favour of C-282. She assures that her government is doing everything in its power to speed things up in the Senate, which is out of its control.

“We're taking the phone! We're having conversations with senators. We've had several recently to ask senators to work diligently. It's unacceptable for a committee to drag things out unduly,” she said in an interview with Le Devoir.

She points out, however, that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided to reform the Upper House by appointing only independent senators. The goal was to give them a more meaningful role than simply endorsing government priorities. However, she argues, this came with the expectation that the work would be conducted diligently.

Quebec Senator Amina Gerba, sponsor of Bill C-282 and member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, was also present alongside the many Bloc Québécois elected officials to whom a few New Democrats and Conservatives have joined. Despite this, she argued that “the Senate is doing everything” to quickly adopt the text.

“Canadians must understand that the Senate today is predominantly independent. It is a chamber of second thought. The legitimacy of the Senate has been established since its creation. »

On Wednesday, Conservative Senator Leo Housakos instead alleged that senators are taking orders from a government that doesn’t really want to see this bill passed on time. In an interview with Le Devoir, he predicted that these senators will try to amend C-282 to hurt its chances of being passed.

When the next election is called, which could theoretically happen as early as this fall, all bills that have not already been passed will be sent to the recycling bin, even those awaiting Senate approval.