Senator McPhedran: Senator Marwah, can you give us a sense, please, of the timing of the work of this special committee, and when we can expect to receive a report back to senators?

Hon. Marilou McPhedran: Honourable senators, my question is directed to Senator Marwah as Chair of the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration and is related to the climate crisis the world over, but also as it relates to the Senate.

The Sierra Club and six other non-profit organizations recently reported that fossil fuel financing from the world’s 60 largest banks reached US$4.6 trillion since the adoption of the Paris Agreement. The latest report from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released April 4, warned it’s now or never and underscored the imperative to the financial sector to rapidly reduce its support for fossil fuels.

Senator Marwah, my question to you as chair of Internal Economy is informed by all of the big five banks in Canada — Scotiabank, RBC, CIBC, BMO and TD — being among the world’s top 20 financiers of fossil fuel producers, and the Sierra Club report named three Canadian big banks among the “dirty dozen” of top international fossil fuel financiers. RBC is number 5, Scotiabank is number 9, and TD is number 11. Senator Marwah, could you please inform us as to the bank or banks that the Senate of Canada uses for administration of the Senate, including payment of salaries to senators and their staff?

Senator McPhedran: Senator Plett, my supplementary question is based on recent reports that I brought to your attention, albeit recently, from Conservative thinkers such as the Tory Reform Group, a U.K. Conservative Party–affiliated think tank, that concluded that lowering the voting age would be a positive outcome for both political engagement in general and their Conservative Party membership specifically. There’s another report that was authored by Conservative MPs from Wales, Scotland and England about the processes and results that they have seen by lowering the voting age where they lay out very convincing arguments that non-partisan rights-granting action is, in fact, the core issue for lowering the federal voting age. These Tory MPs refuted common misperceptions, with all due respect, some of which were repeated in your speech just now, and they concluded that lower voting ages do not disproportionately advance left-of-centre parties. In fact, it is arguably the other way around.

Senator Plett, have you considered the findings in reports such as these?

Senator McPhedran: Thank you. There are numerous cases of the Senate introducing bills that sought to amend the Canada Elections Act, and my question is geared to whether you recall that many of those were actually introduced by Conservative senators.

If we’re to accept that any legislation that deals with the Canada Elections Act should originate in the other place, how do we account for former senator Linda Frum’s proposed legislation in Bill S-239 that sought to open up the Canada Elections Act, former senator Lowell Murray who, in the 40th Parliament, introduced Bill S-202, a bill to repeal fixed elections, or former senator Wilfred P. Moore who, in the 39th Parliament, introduced Bill S-224, which sought to amend the Parliament of Canada Act by setting time limits? Any of these bills would surely impact the conduct of elections in this country, yet all of them started here, and all of them were debated here.

Senator Plett, why is what’s good for the goose, with previous senators, not also good for the gander?

Hon. Marilou McPhedran: Senator Plett, would you take a question?