How are MPs passing so many bills without voting?

MPs don't officially have to vote in order to pass bills in the House of Commons and it appears to be happening more frequently than usual this session of Parliament.

Passing legislation "on division" allows members of Parliament to approve bills without having to register their support or their disapproval.

It essentially means that the parties don't agree on the piece of legislation in question, but don't feel the need to have a head count on who supports it and who doesn't. Instead MPs just agree to allow it to go through.

"On division means that without counting every vote in the room, the room agrees that the motion or the law … can pass with the understanding that not everybody was in favour of it," said Peter Van Loan, a former government House leader.

MPs can also agree to forgo a vote on a bill or motion if there is unanimous consent to allow it to pass. But that is not the same as passing it on division.

CBC News conducted an analysis of more than two decades' worth of parliamentary journals examining when MPs opted to allow bills to pass through the House on division. The analysis focused on third reading votes, as it is the final legislative hurdle in the House of Commons, and Parliament frequently allows bills to go through to the committee process without a head count before facing a final showdown.

Since the start of the current parliamentary session, half of the bills that have been put up for a third reading in the House passed without consensus or a head count.

That's a significantly higher proportion when comparing it to previous parliaments.

During former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's first minority government, a large chunk of the session was held during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The House sat in a hybrid form and moved quickly to pass legislation enacting benefits that were paid out to Canadians who had lost work due to health restrictions — and many of those bills were pushed through on division during that time.

Still, only about a quarter of the bills that passed at third reading during the 43rd Parliament did so without a standing vote.

The current make up of the House of Commons might explain why the parties are more frequently forgoing a head count when there is disagreement on a bill.

The Liberals are just a few seats shy of a majority government and need the support of other parties to pass their legislative agenda.

At least two of the bills that have passed third reading on division — the Budget Implementation Act and December's supplementary estimates — have been confidence votes. If a head count had been taken and the Liberals lost, then the government would fall and Canadians would likely be heading to the polls for the second time in the span of a year.

CBC News reported last month that the Conservatives and Liberals have been working on potential deals that could prevent both gridlock in the House and another election.