The federal government’s much anticipated shippers rights bill didn’t make it home for Christmas.
In the run up to Parliament’s Dec. 14 adjournment for a six week Christmas break, there was talk among MPs about the urgent need to approve the legislation to get the bill to the Senate.
“I ask members to keep this in mind during third reading debate: shippers like the bill,” Brian Jean, parliamentary secretary to the transport minister, said during the Dec. 10 debate on Bill C-8.
“They want it to be passed as soon as possible. Let us not disappoint them.”
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But despite the fact that all parties in the House of Commons support the amendments to the Canada Transportation Act to give shippers more options in disputes with the railways, they did not get the job done.
The bill remained unapproved, probably minutes away from a final vote, when the session adjourned.
It will be back on the parliamentary agenda when MPs return Jan. 28 but with a budget expected soon after and then the possibility of a winter election, supporters of the bill worry that it may die before becoming law.
“It certainly is unfortunate and frustrating,” said Wade Sobkowich of the Western Grain Elevators Association.
“I’m told it probably needed only another 15 minutes of debate. Now, I’m afraid it might fall off the rails and not get approved. We’ve waited a long time for this and to get this close is frustrating.”
Sobkowich was one of three shipper representatives who appeared before the Commons transport committee in November to call for quick passage.
C-8 was the victim of other parliamentary priorities. It was not called again for debate after Dec. 10, squeezed off the agenda by issues that politicians considered more urgent.
Throughout the final week of the sitting, New Democrat MPs filibustered the government’s economic statement and the Conservatives kept calling it for debate because they wanted the package approved before Christmas, with its Jan. 1 reduction in the GST to five percent.
As well, time was spent on government emergency legislation introduced to order the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. to restart its nuclear reactor in Chalk River, Ont., because it produces a cancer-fighting isotope that was in short supply around the world. The reactor had been ordered shut down for repairs.
However, during debate at the final stage of Commons consideration, it was clear MPs support the shippers’ rights bill.
