Bills pushed through Commons at last minute won't be studied by Senate until February

Despite a deal to push government bills through their final stages before the House of Commons rose last Thursday, two pieces of priority budget and border legislation, C-4 and C-12, can't become law until at least February.

The Senate did not sit a week beyond the House of Commons this year, so late legislation can't pass through the upper chamber and receive royal assent until Parliament's back from its two-month recess.

Chloé Fedio, the director of communications for Pierre Moreau, the government's representative in the Senate, said in an email to CBC News that the upper chamber did not want to rush.

"Bill C-4 and Bill C-12 are complex bills that the Senate intends to study in the new year," Fedio wrote. "There was no consensus to rush these two bills through the Senate in a single week.

"Senate leadership will discuss a plan to ensure these pieces of legislation are efficiently reviewed when the Senate sitting resumes on Feb. 3."

Fedio also pointed out that on Nov. 26, the Senate agreed to begin studying the government's fall budget implementation bill, C-15, at 11 different committees. This co-operation with the Carney government's most recent priorities, she suggested, limited senators' ability to pre-study other bills like C-4 and C-12 in the run-up to winter recess.

Government House leader Steven MacKinnon's office told CBC News it respects the will of the Senate, but remains happy to see both bills progress to the point of finally clearing the House, at least.

After months of backed-up legislating in the 44th Parliament, senators bristled last June when Prime Minister Mark Carney's newly elected government applied pressure on the Senate to accelerate the Liberals' new agenda in the 45th.

"Governments will understandably always push to get their agenda through Parliament as quickly as possible, but expediency should not dispense with our usual legislative process," Alberta Sen. Scott Tannas wrote earlier this fall.

Tannas voiced concerns shared by many of his colleagues about the increasing use of large omnibus bills that are challenging for senators to review quickly in detail.

"Our two-chamber system was deliberately designed for regional representation and minority interests to be integral in the lawmaking process," Tannas wrote.

"Too often, in the rush to pass bills before adjournment periods, senators face pressure not to make amendments because MPs have left Ottawa."

The Senate's published sitting calendar listed Dec. 11 as its final sitting day for 2025. The House of Commons had been scheduled to rise on Dec. 12.

Some years, however, the Senate sits later than the Commons before rising for its extended winter and summer breaks.