The Senate will take the time necessary to rigorously study Bill C-13, which reforms the Official Languages Act, indicated Acadian Senator René Cormier, who chairs the Upper House committee that will examine the legislative document.
Official Languages Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor repeated on Monday her wish that the Senate pass the bill “as soon as possible. […]by the end of June”.
However, she will have to moderate her expectations, according to the comments of Senator Cormier, who nevertheless hopes that the study will proceed “smoothly”.
“We have to do our second-look exercise on this bill with all the rigor we want, and for that, we will have to have a sufficient number of meetings,” he declared in a interview with The Canadian Press after the House of Commons passed C-13 almost unanimously on Monday.
The bill enshrines a new right to work and be served in French in Quebec and in “regions with a strong Francophone presence” in other provinces in private companies under federal jurisdiction, such as banks and airlines or railway companies. It is now aligned with the Charter of the French language, which has won the support of the Government of Quebec.
The legislative process and the number of senators who wish to speak will therefore determine whether the minister’s wishes will be fulfilled. Senators could also obstruct the bill, which could delay the proceedings.
Once Bill C-13 lands in the Senate — which is expected to happen on Tuesday — “every” senator will have the right to speak at second reading if they wish, Cormier said. .
The bill will then proceed to committee study. “We will have to see […] how many witnesses we are going to meet, what will be the number of meetings we are going to have to do to proceed with the study and up to clause by clause,” he added.
To the Minister’s argument that senators could complete their work more quickly, as they previously conducted a pre-study of C-13 during which they heard witnesses in committee, Mr. Cormier replied that the Senate should consider amendments made by the House of Commons. “We did not have these amendments at the time when we did the preliminary study,” he pointed out.
The Standing Senate Committee on Official Languages meets once a week, on Mondays, and the time slots are four hours long. But Mondays are a rare commodity before the summer break in the Senate calendar: there are four left.
Thus, the leaders of the various groups will have to give their agreement if more time slots are necessary, noted Mr. Cormier.
He notes, however, that “nothing is impossible” since the senators are sensitive to the feeling of “urgency” of official language minority communities who want this bill to see the light of day.