(OTTAWA) The House of Commons took an unscheduled break Monday morning after no MPs came forward to sponsor the bill it was to debate.
The House needed to tackle a bill that would recognize the essential role that artists and the arts play in all aspects of Canadian life.
“It will be the basis for the development of the policies necessary for the arts, museums and performance halls, art galleries, workshops, publishing houses and more”, explained, during a final debate last year, Manitoba Senator Patricia Bovey, who introduced the bill in the Senate.
The Upper House passed the bill in October.
It was to be the platform for “reviews, updates, and much-needed policy settings for the creative sector in this country, which is the third-largest employer in our country, but whose creators represent the largest percentage of workers living in below the poverty line”, had argued Mme Bovey.
The bill was to be sponsored in the House of Commons by Liberal MP Jim Carr.
Mr Carr died last December, however, and no MPs were found to take his place in sponsoring the bill before it was put on the House agenda on Monday morning.
Speaker Anthony Rota was forced to adjourn for an hour until MPs were ready to take up the next item on the agenda.
A spokesman for Government House Leader Mark Holland said it is up to MPs themselves to show up to sponsor a private member’s bill. The government has no role to play in determining who sponsors them, Holland said.
More than 600 people took part in the consultations of Mme Bovey before his bill was introduced in the Senate.
The senator, who will soon be 75, is expected to leave the Senate on May 15.