Ottawa

The wasted Parliament

Joan Bryden surveys the results of this session.

As of today, only two appropriation bills — important but routine pieces of legislation that ensure the government has money to operate — have received royal assent after winning approval from both the House of Commons and Senate.

A handful more — including an all-party brokered compromise on refugee reforms and a massive, omnibus budget implementation bill — might yet become law in a last-minute flurry of activity … The Commons is expected to break as early as Thursday but the Senate may sit up to an additional three weeks to deal with legislation the government deems most urgent.

Parliamentary expert Ned Franks says he can’t recall another legislative sitting that has accomplished so little. “There might have been (but) I have no record of it,” says the political scientist.

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