Elected officials from all parties in Ottawa, including ministers from the Trudeau government, joined breeders on Thursday to ask senators to accelerate the adoption of a bill on supply management whose blocking could plunge the country into elections.
Senators even took part in the demonstration targeting some of their colleagues sitting on the Foreign Affairs committee. This committee is still studying Bloc Québécois bill C-282, 15 months after its adoption by elected officials.
Quebec Senator Pierre J. Dalphond told the Duty that, according to him, the legitimacy of the Senate is “clearly” compromised by the stubbornness of his colleagues in taking all their time.
“Here, we have a bill which is supported by almost all the deputies. […] I don’t understand why the senators on the committee refuse to hear this. It’s as if the system had gone on an uncontrollable trajectory,” he laments.
The text in question aims to protect supply management of milk, poultry and eggs in future trade negotiations. Adopted by 262 deputies against 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 Duty 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 widespread disruption in the Commons . Senator Boehm is a fierce opponent of the text and said he did not feel concerned by the risk of elections.
Call to the government
Breeders who came Thursday morning to attend the rally organized in front of the federal Parliament simply did not understand why Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does not force the hand of the senators he has 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,’” testifies Jacques Lafortune, president of the Union of Milk Producers of Lanaudière.
The survival of many farms depends on this bill, he insists. Breeders fear that Canada’s diplomats will be tempted to sell out the current supply management model in free trade agreement negotiations in the future.
“I do not understand that, even if all the political parties have accepted [le texte de C-82]a minority of senators can change that,” adds Mr. Lafortune, himself the owner of a herd of 200 cows.
“I find it really sad that it is the Senate that is slowing down the process. This is not normal, [puisque] it was adopted democratically. It’s unacceptable that this continues, this vagueness,” adds Ana Maria Martin, a dairy producer from Montérégie who owns around sixty animals.
Ministers demonstrate
Rarely, 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.
His predecessor, the current Minister of National Revenue Marie-Claude Bibeau, took the floor, recalling that the Liberal Party was in favor of C-282. She assures that her government is doing everything in its power to speed up things in the Senate, which is beyond its control.
“We’ll take the phone!” We have conversations with senators. We have had several recently asking senators to work diligently. It is unacceptable for a committee to stretch the sauce unduly,” she said in an interview with THE Duty.
However, she recalls that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to reform the Upper House by appointing only independent senators. The objective 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 carried out diligently.
Quebec Senator Amina Gerba, sponsor of Bill C-282 and member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, was also present alongside numerous elected officials from the Bloc Québécois, to which a few New Democrats and Conservatives were added. Despite this, she argued that “the Senate is doing everything” to quickly adopt the text.
“Canadians must understand that the Senate today is majority independent. It’s a second glance room. The legitimacy of the Senate has been established since its creation. »
On Wednesday, Conservative Senator Leo Housakos instead alleged that senators are receiving orders from a government that does not really want to see this bill adopted on time. In interview with Dutyhe predicted that these senators will try to amend C-282 to harm its chances of being adopted.
When the next election is called, which could theoretically happen this fall, all bills that have not already been adopted will go into the recycling bin, even those awaiting approval by the Senate.