Firearms and Government Contract Items to Watch as Parliament Reconvenes

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Dec. 8, 2022. The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

News Analysis

The House of Commons adjourned for the holiday break on Dec. 14 amid high tensions over gun control, and during the pause noteworthy events took place related to government contracts and travel chaos. All these issues are likely to be hot topics when MPs return on Jan. 30.

Along with these new issues, inflation will remain a core focus for the Liberals and other parties.

The topic was reportedly a priority item discussed during the Liberal cabinet and caucus retreats in recent days.

It’s also the first thing House Government Leader Mark Holland raised when asked what his party would focus on during the next session.

“Very clearly we’re going to continue to be focused on affordability,” Holland said on Dec. 14.

“We’re facing global headwinds in terms of the cost of living for Canadians, the ability for them to pay for their mortgage, to pay for groceries, to pay for gas.”

The two other items he raised relate to taking action against the “existential crisis of climate change” and addressing foreign interference.

The Liberal government was under pressure before the break over reports of the Chinese Communist Party providing money to federal candidates in elections.

Holland said “making sure that that flame of democracy is protected, both domestically and abroad” would be a major theme in the new year.

The government said in December that consultations would be taking place on the merit of establishing a foreign agent registry to help tackle interference by other countries.

On the travel chaos seen over the holiday period, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said his government would be looking at increasing penalties for air carriers who offer poor service.

Regarding government bills currently making their way through Parliament, two key ones relate to the information environment, with C-11 and C-18 now in the Senate.

Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, is a revamping of the Broadcasting Act to increase the regulatory powers of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission over internet content.

Bill C-18, the Online News Act, seeks to compel online tech giants to strike revenue sharing deals with Canadian media outlets.

A big contentious issue in early stages in the Commons is gun control Bill C-21 and the two sizeable amendments tabled by the Liberals in November, which seek to outlaw a number of rifles used by hunters and enshrine an evergreen definition of what they think constitutes an “assault-style” rifle.

The Conservatives have of course protested, but were supported by the NDP and the Assembly of First Nations.

Even the Bloc Québécois, typically very strong on gun control, has raised concerns about the amendments.

“The intention of the law is not for debate,” Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said on Dec. 6, adding that people need to be given a degree of security against firearms.

But he said the law shouldn’t cause a prejudice to hunters and should focus on creating a good definition to prohibit certain types of firearms.

The Commons public safety committee will hold a number of meetings in the short term to carry out consultations on the amendments.

New Ammunition

If firearms was becoming a hot issue before the break, events over the holidays provided new ammunition for Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre.

He had said before the House adjourned that Canada is “broken” under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and he is now seizing on the holiday travel chaos, the rising street crime in Toronto, and the revelations on government contracts.

“Look around you. Crime is raging out of control in our streets. Our people are desperate that they'll have to lose their homes because of rising inflation,” he told his party caucus on Jan. 27.

“And families who have been locked down for two years because of COVID are now locked down at airports when they try to get away for a small vacation.”

Poilievre said that Canadians are suffering meanwhile consultants like McKinsey have “never had it so good” and political staffers on Parliament Hill are giving contracts to long term friends.

During the break, Global News reported that Housing Minister Ahmed Hussen had given $93,000 in contracts to a PR firm owned by the sister of his senior advisor.

Trade Minister Mary Ng was found in violation of ethics rule in December for giving contracts to a friend.

The issue of the contracts for U.S. multinational consulting firm McKinsey, which increased exponentially since the Liberals took power in 2015, will also be studied by a Commons committee.

If Poilievre has been hammering on his usual theme of inflation, and addressing traditional conservative issues such as gun rights and crime policies, he has also made incursions into what is typically more left-of-centre territory.

He launched consultations with First Nations, offering to put more tax revenue in their pockets, while using words that could have been spoken by NDP MPs.

“First Nations people have lived for too long under a paternalistic, colonial, top down, Ottawa knows best system that has failed them,” he said in Vancouver on Jan. 24.

And while touring Quebec, he said Trudeau was not delivering results on the environment and that he would “give the green light to green projects.”

Focus on Healthcare

Developments in healthcare are also expected in the new year, with Trudeau inviting the provincial premiers to Ottawa on Feb. 7.

The government says the new federal money for provincial health care systems will come with strings attached, with conditions such as increasing the sharing of health data.

The NDP is watching intently, having a deal to keep the Liberals in power over increasing the federal government’s involvement in the health field.

The supply-and-confidence agreement between the two parties has already produced the dental care benefit for children under 12.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh called out Trudeau on Jan. 25 over the Liberals not criticizing an Ontario and Alberta plan to divert some care to private clinics to reduce the burden on the public systems.