Return of Parliament
Parliament resumed Monday after a five-month summer and election campaign break. On Monday MPs convened and launched the session by re-electing Liberal MP Anthony Rota as Speaker of the House.
Liberal house leader Mark Holland outlined the government’s priorities. The Liberals will try to pass 4 bills before 2022, including economic support for Canadians impacted by COVID, paid sick days for federally-regulated employees, protections for healthcare workers, and a ban on conversion therapy.
The government revealed at the time that it was ending the Canada Recovery Benefit – which was paid directly to individuals who could not work because of COVID-19 – while retroactively extending a more limited version of wage and rent supports for businesses in the hardest-hit sectors of the economy. These intentions were announced without plans for implementation and must be passed into legislation before being implemented.
This is an ambitious agenda as bills will require the support of another party in this minority parliament. The NDP have stated that they will not support government legislation to scale back COVID-19 benefits unless the Liberals agree to changes.
Conservative leader, Erin O’Toole who has been struggling with challenges to his leadership and questions over the vaccine status of his MPs, said his MPs were either vaccinated or had secured a medical exemption, but refused to specify how many fell into each category. The Liberals responded, stating that multiple Conservative MPs qualifying for medical exemptions was “statistically unlikely.”
The House was almost entirely full Monday, with only a small handful of empty seats on both sides of the aisle. On Tuesday, the Liberals provided notice that they intend to bring forward a motion to resume hybrid sittings to allow for social distancing in the chamber, and remote participation.
While the new cabinet has been named, mandate letters for Ministers are still forthcoming and parliamentary secretaries have not yet been named. Committee appointments are expected in the coming weeks.
CCUA has already met with the Finance Minister’s staff and many key MPs since the election. We will conduct outreach to ministers of relevance to the credit union sector in the coming weeks. CCUA continues to facilitate credit union meetings with MPs and is confirming the co-chairs of the All-Party Credit Union Caucus.
The House of Commons will sit for less than a month before breaking for the holidays on December 17. It will return on January 31, 2022.
On Tuesday, new Governor General, Mary Simon, read the Speech from the Throne, outlining the government’s priorities for this parliamentary session.
Speech From the Throne
In Tuesday’s Throne Speech, the Liberal government focused on ‘delivering results for Canadians.’
Inflation and the rising cost of living were cited as two major economic concerns which the Liberals will address via a focus on housing affordability and childcare. The speech included pledges around pursuing an “economy of the future” and promising to go “further, faster” on the climate file, emphasizing promises like capping oil-and-gas sector emissions, accelerating the push towards net-zero emissions and investments in public transit.
The speech marked a significant change in language regarding the pandemic, from the oft-used phrase ‘COVID recovery’ to the now preferred “building a resilient economy,” signaling the government’s intent to move beyond a sole focus on COVID, to a more broad approach to the economy as a whole, supporting key sectors who are struggling.
The speech will now become the first confidence motion in the new parliament and will need the support of at least one other party to pass. It will most likely be supported by the NDP and Bloc Quebecois based on the inclusion of climate change, child-care and housing affordability provisions. Once the Throne Speech passes this vote, the government will race to pass a number of key bills over the next four weeks.