Carney shows his hand on infrastructure and trade bill

Ever since June 6, when Prime Minister Mark Carney declared that he expects Bill C-5 to become law before summer break, one question has loomed over Parliament: How?

It normally takes months for a bill to become law. Proposed legislation (which is what a bill is) must go through several readings and committees run by MPs and senators alike, who all call witnesses to weigh in on the pros and cons, which trigger amendments, which then require further deliberation, all before a final vote is cast. If that sounds slow, that’s because it is — and it usually takes even longer in a minority government, where Opposition MPs make up a big portion of the committees and so, have ample opportunity to bog the process down. 

So how did Carney expect to whiz his signature policy through such a quagmire in a mere two or three weeks? 

But on Thursday, June 12 – one head-scratching week after Carney unveiled the bill – he dropped his cards: a special parliamentary order that would, if Parliament votes for it, condense the entire process into five days. 

The order’s formal name is “An Act to enact the Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Act and the Building Canada Act.” Or as NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice calls it, a super-motion. 

“[It] will, if passed, speed up the debate and study of that bill in an incredible and scandalous way,” Boulerice said in a phone interview soon after the Act to Enact the Act was introduced. 

Parliament will vote on this super-motion on Friday. It requires a simple majority to pass. If that happens, a parliamentary committee will be formed next week and given just two days to scrutinize Bill C-5, plus make whatever amendments they can squeeze in. The bill will go through the final two readings and hit the floor next Friday, June 20, for a final vote. On that day, according to the terms of the super-motion, “[t]he House shall not adjourn until the proceedings on the bill have been completed.” Meaning, in other words, MPs are stuck in their seats until the bill either becomes law or dies.

All of that hinges on the super-motion. If that passes on June 13, Carney will almost certainly get his legislation by next weekend.

“It's really against the rights of parliamentarians,” Boulerice said. “It's really anti-democratic. It's all the horrible things that a government can do to shut down debate and pass a really controversial project through the throats of the MPs and the general public and First Nations and environmental groups.”

Two Acts in one

Bill C-5 is really two bills in one, both named in the unwieldy title. The first part is about breaking down interprovincial barriers to trade and labour mobility, and is, in general, less controversial than the bill’s second part: the “Building Canada Act,” which would give cabinet the power to deem certain megaprojects (from pipelines and electricity grids to ports and high-speed rail) in the “national interest,” which would then put them on a two-year fast track to federal approval. It’s the second part that Boulerice, along with many environmental advocacy groups and Indigenous leaders, have deep misgivings about. 

“‘National interest’ is so vague that they can put whatever they want [on that list], and after that, guarantee the two years maximum. … Once it’s on the list, it cannot be removed. It cannot be blocked or stopped by anybody – provinces, First Nations, citizens, cities. I think it’s the dream of Stephen Harper coming true.”

Indeed, Conservatives do appear to like the bill – the party’s members, not known for their shyness about legislation they dislike, didn’t once mention it or the super-motion to accelerate its passage, in Thursday’s Question Period. What’s less clear is whether they want to hand Carney the political gift of having his signature policy turned into law in such short order against such odds. The Conservative Party did not immediately respond to an inquiry about their plans.

It’s far from a done deal yet, however. Boulerice is in talks with the Bloc Quebecois, both of whom are busy scouring the “really big book” of parliamentary procedure for tools that might at least put the brakes on the super-motion.

“We will try some obstruction procedures,” he said. In addition to motions that could slow the day down, Boulerice said they might try splitting Bill C-5 into two parts, allowing the first to rush through, while reserving the second part on “national interest” projects for proper scrutiny.”

In a best-case scenario for Boulerice, the NDP and Bloc will be able to stall voting on the super-motion until Monday. In that case, “we’ll gain some time to raise awareness” with the public, in the hopes of generating enough bad press that the bill becomes too toxic for Parliament to support. 

But the government is already working on getting its own message out. In a separate briefing about wildfires, several cabinet ministers were asked by reporters to explain the rush embodied by this super-motion. 

“We’re in a very difficult situation right now,” said Tim Hodgson, minister of energy and natural resources. “We have a trade war that is affecting sector after sector after sector. Canadian jobs are at risk, Canadian livelihoods are at risk, and quite frankly, the prosperity of the country is at risk … to deal with this, we need to do things that we have not done in a long time, in time frames we have not done since the end of World War II. What we are doing is allowing for debate – I spent four hours last night in a committee of the whole. There is going to be the same sort of process in the Senate. It is important that we start moving, or we will find ourselves in an increasingly difficult situation.”

Asked if the Liberals have spoken with Conservatives for a sense of whether they’ll support this push, Hodgson said, “I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about the private conversations that are going on.”

Mandy Gull-Masty, the minister of Indigenous services and a former Grand Chief of the Cree Nation government in Quebec, was also at that press conference. Asked if the government had addressed the question of First Nation consultation and support for this legislation, Gull-Masty said that in her view, Bill C-5 is “not just critical for the Canadian economy, it’s also critical for Indigenous people.” 

She said the prime minister has made himself personally available to Indigenous leaders across the country, and felt that Section 35, which enshrines Indigenous rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, along with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, are both embedded in the process. “I think this is something that is unique to the One Canada Economy Bill, is that we’re not just inviting Indigenous partnership to the table, we’re actually asking them, ‘What is your process of consultation, and how can we work with you in collaboration to carry out those steps?’”

For now, it won’t be Indigenous groups, or environmental advocates, or anyone but the MPs inside the House of Commons who decide whether Gull Masty’s faith in her new party’s good faith is warranted. And of those parliamentarians, it is now the Conservatives who hold the future of Carney’s prized legislation in their hands. They could choose to gift it to him all at once, delay it until after summer, or withhold it altogether.

Now that Carney’s revealed his hand, the last play goes to them.