It's short and it got a late start — but this Parliament is getting things done
CBC
Though it might not be quite worthy of a ticker-tape parade, this brief four-week fall sitting of the House of Commons could end up looking somewhat productive.
The next question is whether this foreshadows an equally productive Parliament in the new year.
At least some of the efficiency might be traced back to a simple alignment of political interests. Consider C-4, the Liberal government's bill to ban conversion therapy.
Last week, MPs unanimously agreed to pass the bill immediately at all stages, just two days after it was tabled in the House. This week, senators agreed to do the same and the bill was quickly given royal assent.
It no doubt helped that similar legislation passed the House last spring, before dying on the order paper when Parliament was dissolved for this fall's election. But fast-tracking the legislation also worked neatly for both the government and the Official Opposition.
WATCH: MPs react after House of Commons passes conversion therapy ban
In the House and Senate, it was Conservatives who moved the motions to pass the bill at all stages without recorded votes. That got a difficult issue for the Conservative Party off the table. It also spared them from the sort of roll-call voting that would have shown exactly how many of their members still opposed the bill.
The Liberals were at least smart enough to take "yes" for an answer. The government could have tried to make passing the bill as painful as possible for the Conservatives — but after having delayed the conversion therapy ban with an election call, the Liberals would have been pilloried for dragging this out now.
Three weeks ago, Government House leader Mark Holland outlined his priorities for these four weeks: the conversion therapy ban and legislation to extend COVID-19 supports, protect health care workers from protests and mandate ten days of paid sick leave for workers in federally regulated sectors.
The government put the last two of those priorities together in one bill (C-3) and then got the NDP's support to invoke "time allocation" — a formal mechanism for bringing debate to an end — in order to call a vote after four days of debate at second reading.
This was a case of the Liberals and NDP wanting the same things; New Democrats grumbled that the Liberals were late to embrace an NDP demand for paid sick leave. But C-3 also ended up getting the support of the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois to pass unanimously.
The extension of COVID-19 supports is proving trickier, particularly because of opposition concerns about seniors whose Guaranteed Income Supplement payments are being clawed back because they received other pandemic benefits. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says she is seized with the issue but it's not clear how quickly a remedy might come.
There could be other trouble ahead. The government and the Official Opposition are still at odds over access to documents related to the Public Health Agency of Canada's firing of two scientists last year. A new parliamentary study of Canada's evacuation from Afghanistan could lead to more disputes over classified government documents.
But the House of Commons might also be demonstrating that it is capable of moving quickly.