C-60: the first budget implementation act of 2013

Here is Bill C-60, the first budget implementation act of the year.

At 125 pages—according to the page count on Adobe—it is the shortest budget bill tabled by the Conservatives since 2009, when that year’s second budget bill was 60 pages (the first budget bill tabled that year was 551 pages). It is still larger than all but three budget bills tabled between 1994 and 2005. See this short history of budget implementation acts for previous page totals.

After tabling the bill in the House, Jim Flaherty told reporters that the government will ask the finance committee to send certain parts of the bill to different committees for study.

The bill amends the Excise Tax Act, the Excise Act, 2001, the Customs Tariff, the Trust and Loan Companies Act, the Bank Act, the Insurance Companies Act, the Cooperative Credit Associations Act, the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act, the Canadian Securities Regulation Regime Transition Office Act, the Investment Canada Act, the Canada Pension Plan, the Pension Act, the War Veterans Allowance Act, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Citizenship Act, the Nuclear Safety and Control Act, the National Capital Act, the Department of Canadian Heritage Act, the National Holocaust Monument Act, the Salaries Act, the Parliament of Canada Act, the Department of Public Works and Government Services Act, the Financial Administration Act and the Keeping Canada’s Economy and Jobs Growing Act.

It also enacts the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act, which allows for the amalgamation of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and CIDA.