Canada’s 44th Parliament opened earlier this week with the traditional “Speech from the Throne” read by our new and first indigenous Governor-General, the Right Honourable Mary May Simon. Delivered in English, French and her native Inuktitut, she outlined the Liberal government’s priorities for the new session including the ongoing COVID crisis, economic recovery, climate change, child care, paid sick leave and Indigenous reconciliation.
The speech centered around a narrative of the work to be done in the balance of this decade and recognized that in the nearly two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians have experienced extensive disruption that has heightened some of our most intractable social, economical and environmental problems facing the country and world. Consequently, the Government’s message was to urge Parliament and Canadians to “transform discussion into “concrete results” with the desired aim of “Growing an economy that works for everyone; fighting climate change; moving forward on the path of reconciliation; [and] making sure our communities are safe, healthy and inclusive.”
It should therefore be expected that most Government priorities will be focused on these objectives. For our industry, this means that the proposed legislation to modernize the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and Chemicals Management Plan can be expected to be reintroduced.
Several other significant commitments referenced in the Speech from the Throne include:
- Within Canada Health Transfer negotiations with the provinces, funding priorities were identified to address accessibility, rural care, delayed procedures, mental health and addiction treatment, long-term care, and improving data collection across health systems.
- Moving to a more targeted pandemic supports to constrain spending, but extending support for industries that continue to struggle. (NOTE: In the 2021 Budget, tourism, hospitality, culture and sport were identified as priority sectors.)
- A Housing Accelerator Fund for municipalities to build more, better and faster housing. For homebuyers, a more flexible First-Time Home Buyer’s Incentive, a new Rent-to-Own program and “reducing closing costs for first-time buyers.”
- Continue increasing immigration levels, deliver a “world-leading” refugee program, and reduce applicant wait times. (NOTE: Population growth being important for both growth in our sector as well as in meeting labour/skills shortages.)
- Producing the “world’s cleanest steel, aluminum, building products, cars and planes,” including leveraging Canada’s “raw materials and energy” and skilled workforce.
- Cap and cut oil and gas sector emissions and accelerate pathways to net-zero electricity.
Investments in public transit and mandating sale of zero-emissions vehicles. - Continuing to increase the carbon tax and continuing to rebate revenues to taxpayers.
- A National Adaptation Strategy to prepare for floods, wildfire, drought, erosion and other extreme events, and helping affected communities build back from these events.
- Mandatory buy-back program for assault-style weapons, and support any province that wants to ban handguns.
- Adapt and expand diplomatic efforts, especially in the Indo-Pacific and Arctic region, to counter the growing challenges from “great powers”.
With the reading of the “Speech from the Throne”, Parliament will now begin the required debate on this outline of the general policy direction of the Government which will conclude with the customary motion of confidence in the government (and possible amendments of “no-confidence” moved by the official opposition). The vote on this motion and amendments are “matters of confidence” and as a new minority government, the Liberals will need to win these confidence motions to continue to govern. However, given that we have just had an election, and none of the opposition parties is either in a position to initiate a new election or themselves have the support of a majority of MP’s, it is fully expected that the Government will win these confidence votes.
Given the time required for the Throne Speech debate and that there are only 18 sitting days before the scheduled Christmas break, it is expected that only a few priority pieces of legislation will be introduced before the Christmas recess with most legislative work taking place when Parliament returns in the New Year. As to most of our industries priorities – such as the Self-Care Framework and the ban on animal testing – these are or can primarily be addressed through the regulatory process or through statutory amendments included in various omnibus bills that will likely be introduced later in the session.
One final observation is that after two years of the intensity of the pandemic as well as a summer and fall of electioneering, most of our federal politicians must be in need of a rest and some respite. We suspect that most will be taking advantage of the Christmas break to recharge their batteries as the new year already promises to be a busy one.
