Twenty-six government bills – including one designed to make voting easier in a general election – have been stopped in their tracks with the halting of Parliament.

The bills had yet to pass the parliamentary stages needed to become law when Parliament prorogued. Although they could technically be revived with a motion when Parliament returns, the chances of the Liberals getting the support of a majority of MPs for this to happen are considered remote.

These bills are among those destined to die on the order paper:

The electoral participation bill, designed to make it easier to vote, includes measures to clamp down on electoral interference and the spread of disinformation in elections. Bill C-65, which was brought in as a condition of the now-defunct pact between the Liberals and NDP, would have authorized two additional days of advance polling, while giving Indigenous fly-in communities and citizens living in remote areas additional flexibility to vote in advance of election day.

The bill would also make it easier to vote by mail. It includes measures to target false or misleading information in a candidate’s nomination papers, such as fake signatures.

The online harms bill, one of the Liberals’ flagship bills, would require tech platforms to swiftly remove child pornography as well as content that bullies or sexually victimizes children or induces children to harm themselves. Tech platforms would also have to remove any sexual content posted without consent. The bill would have created a digital safety commission and ombudsperson to combat online harm.

The bill attracted sharp criticism from civil liberties’ groups who feared new criminal penalties could curb freedom of speech. They objected to plans for stiff new criminal penalties for hate crimes and hate propaganda.

The Lost Canadians bill would have reinstated rights to citizenship, creating around 115,000 new citizens in the next five years, according to a report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer.

The bill would have reversed a change by Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2009 that stripped children of a Canadian parent born outside Canada of their automatic right to citizenship. Bill C-71 was introduced after an Ontario court ruled it is unconstitutional to deny citizenship to children born overseas to Canadians also born outside the country.

A First Nations water bill, brought in after years of advocacy by First Nations, would have committed the government to providing adequate and sustainable funding of their water supplies.

Dozens of First Nations have to boil their water to make it safe to drink and Bill C-61 was aimed at addressing this problem.

A cybersecurity bill, designed to protect Canada’s critical systems and guard against data breaches and cyberattacks, was close to becoming law when Parliament prorogued. It would have given the government more authority to protect infrastructure in federally regulated sectors such as finance, energy, transportation and telecommunications. Bill C-26 would also make companies draw up a cybersecurity plan and report incidents.

A bill to regulate AI and mitigate its potential harms was stuck in the House of Commons when Parliament prorogued. Bill C-27 contained three proposed pieces of legislation on artificial intelligence, data protection and consumer protection. It was Canada’s first comprehensive attempt at AI regulation, and would have held businesses accountable for how they develop and use AI technology.

Bill C-38 would have restored Indian status to thousands of First Nations people who lost it because a male family member gave it up under a process known as enfranchisement.

The bill was a response to a constitutional challenge filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. Those who went to court argued that their families had been coerced into revoking their status as the sole way to obtain certain rights. First Nations people had gained Canadian citizenship, the right to vote, own property and keep their children out of residential schools, in return for renouncing their status.

A bill updating the Air Transportation Accountability Act would have made airports create service standards and publish how they performed – for example on how long it should take for a bag to arrive on a carousel, or to wait for security screening.

Bill C-52 would also introduce a process for consulting local communities on designs that could increase aircraft noise. Airports would also have to publish pollution-reduction plans.

A suite of measures in the fall economic statement and the budget also appear to be doomed with the prorogation of Parliament. They include an increase in the capital-gains tax inclusion rate for businesses and individuals on earnings over $250,000, announced last spring. The change was carved off from the rest of the 2024 budget and failed to become law because of gridlock in Parliament.

Included in the fall economic statement introduced in December was a proposal to amend the Sex Offender Information Registration Act to enhance the ability of the RCMP to share information with other countries, including the U.S., about sex offenders crossing borders.

It also proposed amending the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act to toughen up measures to combat terrorist financing and money laundering. And it flagged a forthcoming update to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to give the federal government more power to suspend visas, or change the terms of immigration documents such as work and study permits in the public interest, such as in the case of mass fraud.

Marie Woolf
The Globe and Mail, January 6, 2025