Senator Housakos: Senator Gold, I would like a more precise answer. In the time we have left before we rise for the summer, pre-study or not, do you believe, after you have heard in the last parliamentary session that this legislation needs a robust and thorough review — that was the consensus from a large number of our colleagues in the chamber — that there is an expectation that we can get this done in the short time left?

The last question I have, just to add to the debate, is this: Can you tell us clearly what is the urgent public need for this legislation to pass so quickly that it requires pre-study?

Hon. Leo Housakos: Thank you, Senator Black, for your question and also for having the courtesy of providing it to me in advance.

I’m happy to tell you that on April 27 of this year the committee heard testimony from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which has over 2,000 members, representatives from right across the country.

As part of its testimony, FCM discussed its work with rural communities, noting that it provides training at regional levels so that smaller municipalities can learn how to use the federal government’s climate data in their infrastructure planning.

The committee also plans on inviting individual municipalities, including rural ones, to testify at the committee on this important study.

The FCM will be recommending some municipalities that have shown leadership on this issue to testify at committee on this study. I also want to underline that as per the tradition of the Senate, just because senators don’t serve on the committee on a regular basis, every senator can follow and participate.

Also, I encourage yourself and all members of this chamber that have recommendations in terms of witnesses on this important study to make them to our steering committee, as those would be more than embraced. Our clerk expects to have the input from the FCM and, in order to plan going forward, our witnesses. We look forward, as usual, to making sure that our study is all-encompassing and making sure that all regions of the country are well represented.

[Translation]

Hon. Leo Housakos: Senator Gold, I listened carefully to your case for asking for a pre-study on Bill C-11. I must say that this cannot possibly have been your idea because I know you to be a reasonable man.

Pre-study in the Senate is not a tool to be used lightly. It is a tool that is available to us when there is an urgent public need or when it is of urgent public interest. I haven’t heard anywhere in your statement any compelling case that Bill C-11 somehow responds to some kind of urgent public interest.

My understanding and recollection is that this government received a mandate in the fall of 2021. It recalled Parliament prior to the end of 2021 — an urgent, pressing public issue that they tabled the legislation over in the House only at the end of February.

Furthermore, I also want to highlight that we are in a situation right now in the other place where — for all intents and purposes — for the last little while, the government has a majority parliamentary standing in the House where, again, if a bill were of such urgent public concern, we would have seen the House deal with that issue urgently.

When we have had pre-studies of bills in the past, they have usually been supply bills or they have been in response to an urgent public need that deals with a crisis and we needed to get monies out the door quickly. The government makes a compelling case, and usually both houses, in those instances, acquiesce, take on our responsibilities and exercise that tool of pre-study.

The government has been in power for seven years, with a majority government for four and a half. They didn’t table legislation dealing with this telecommunications issue until the fall of 2020. Now, they are tabling legislation knowing full well that there was no way we would deal with this legislation in the manner that we had highlighted at the end of the last debate on this issue.

There was a consensus among all our colleagues that this bill needed a long, in-depth study. It was a controversial bill that satisfied certain sectors in our society and dissatisfied others, requiring a fulsome, robust debate and discussion.

For all intents and purposes, we have no more than three to four sitting weeks. We are all well aware of the challenges we face in terms of resources and the capacities of our committees to be able to sit more than they are currently. Therefore, the question I have is — knowing full well that this bill has what is far from consensus from stakeholders in our society — do you believe, pre-study or not, that this government will somehow get this bill out of the House of Commons and the Senate before we adjourn for the summer?