Senator Housakos: Leader of the Government in the Senate, the Order Paper from the other place has no mention of this bill. If you ask your parliamentary secretary, Mr. Gerretsen, I’m sure he could confirm that. The Trudeau government introduced this bill at the last minute last spring, without leaving time for debate, and it does not seem like the government will introduce the bill again this year.

The Liberals unfortunately seem to have a habit of doing things like this. During the pandemic, you tried to withdraw the funding allocated to accessible reading materials for Canadians who could not read printed documents. The recipients of the disability tax credit received COVID benefits long after many other groups received their emergency support. Leader of the Government in the Senate, what happened? When will the bill be introduced?

Hon. Leo Housakos (Acting Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, pursuant to rule 12-26(2) of the Rules of the Senate, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the first report of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications, which deals with the expenses incurred by the committee during the Second Session of the Forty-Third Parliament.

(For text of report, see today’s Journals of the Senate, p. 180.)

Hon. Leo Housakos (Acting Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, my question is for the government leader in the Senate. Senator Gold, in the Speech from the Throne in September 2019, the Trudeau government promised to create new Canadian disability benefits. Unfortunately, it was only at the eleventh hour that the bill was finally brought forward last June, just one day before the end of the parliamentary session and eventual dissolution of Parliament for the Prime Minister’s unnecessary election. And then two months following that election, last month’s Speech from the Throne contained no such promises and no mention, nor was there a single mention in Tuesday’s economic and fiscal update.

Leader, if the needs of disabled Canadians are important to the Trudeau government, why hasn’t there been a piece of legislation put forward, instead of actually being shuffled aside and disregarded?