Which Major Bills Would Perish if Government Falls

The view of the government benches is seen from the Speakers Chair in the Chamber of the House of Commons, in Ottawa, on Sept. 12, 2024. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

News Analysis

Whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decides to stay or go, the country could be heading toward a spring election and the government’s current legislative agenda would be relegated to the archives.

Some of the bills that are in jeopardy include the controversial Online Harms Act, which targets issues like child pornography and would create a new hate crime offence punishable by life imprisonment.

Entering the last year of its mandate, the minority Liberal government has been able to pass a number of major pieces of legislation, whether around the regulation of information or firearms.

Other big pieces, like those pertaining to dental care and pharmacare, were brought forward and passed as part of the Liberals’ commitment to the NDP in exchange for keeping the government in power until June 2025.

Now that the NDP has announced fully reversing its stance, promising to take down the government instead of supporting it on confidence votes, it appears the future of a few impactful government bills is in question.

Whether this comes by a spring election or Trudeau proroguing Parliament to avoid this outcome remains to be seen. The prime minister has been under increased pressure to step down from his own caucus since Chrystia Freeland resigned from cabinet on Dec. 16.

According to procedures of the House, bills that are still in various parliamentary review stages are terminated upon prorogation.

In any case, House business ground to a halt during the fall sitting and there is no indication to date that conditions will be different when the House resumes sitting on Jan. 27.

The opposition led a filibuster in recent months in response to the government not fully complying with a House order to submit all documents pertaining to the federal green fund SDTC to the RCMP.

Another factor impacting the approval of remaining bills is their stage in the parliamentary review process.

The majority of House government bills are at an early stage of review, dimming prospects of receiving royal assent before the summer break and the subsequent fall election.

Bills in Play

The most advanced piece of legislation is Bill C-26 dealing with telecommunications security, which the Senate sent back to the House with an amendment after completing third reading. Senators caught a mistake in the bill that would have made a large portion of it inoperable.

The bill seeks to reinforce the security of Canada’s telecommunications network by providing government legal authority to prohibit providers from using high-risk products and services. The bill was introduced in June 2022, shortly after the government banned equipment from Chinese telecom giants like Huawei from the 5G network.

Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, has only completed first reading in the House of Commons. Some of its provisions around speech have raised concerns from civil liberties advocates, and Justice Minister Arif Virani said earlier this month the bill could be split into two to speed up its adoption.

Virani said his government would aim to pass the first portion of the bill that deals with protecting children online. This portion would also create a Digital Safety Commission to regulate social media companies.

Another major bill that could perish is Bill C-27, which deals with the protection of personal information and the regulation of artificial intelligence. The bill has been in committee review since September 2023, with an extraordinary amount of meetings having been held.

The government bill to amend the Canada Elections Act is also at risk of dying before the next election. Bill C-65 would create two additional days of advance polling and would strengthen measures to combat foreign interference.

The bill also currently seeks to push back the set election date of Oct. 20, 2025, with the government saying they want to avoid the date coinciding with the Hindu religious holiday of Diwali. Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault is opposed to this amendment, saying it would interfere with Nunavut’s territorial election.

Conservatives have also said the Liberals and the NDP have sought to make this change so that MPs who stand to lose their seats in the October election would qualify for their pensions. MPs first elected in 2019 will qualify on Oct. 21, 2025, after six years of service.

Several bills related to the First Nations would also likely perish if Parliament is dissolved or prorogued, including Bill C-61, the First Nations Clean Water Act, and Bill C-53, which deals with the recognition of certain Métis governments in Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.