Election campaigns: where good (and questionable and touted) bills go to die

OTTAWA — At least three pieces of the Harper government’s tough-on-crime agenda stand to die next month when Parliament shuts down for the summer in just a few weeks.

Once everyone’s gone, it will be only a matter of time before the prime minister visits the Governor General and asks him to drop the writ.

Launching the 42nd federal election will not only send hundreds of politicians on the hustings, but could also mean Canadians go without a sitting House of Commons until the next calendar year — that means no one proposing laws, no one debating them and no one passing them.

READ MORE: Top court softens Tories’ tough-on-crime agenda

And when Parliament dissolves, so will any bill that hasn’t passed.

As of Tuesday, 25 bills the Conservatives introduced in either the House of Commons or the Senate are in legislative limbo; if the government doesn’t make them a priority, they stand to fall by the wayside.

Government House Leader Peter Van Loan’s office told Global News a majority of the bills on the order paper will be prioritized as the government heads into the home stretch. Those include C-59, the sweeping and contentious budget bill; C-52, which aims to beef up rail safety measures; and another oft-criticized bill, C-51, which deals with the powers of Canada’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the context of fighting terrorism.

READ MORE: Conservatives plan for eight hours of committee hearings on budget bill

Among the 11 bills Van Loan’s office did not identify as priorities, two had their measures rolled into the budget bill (one that brings in an increased child care benefit and another that focuses on support for seriously injured veterans and their families).

The others — including bills to impose lifetime sentences without the chance for parole and to allow the federal competition watchdog to investigate price gaps between goods sold in Canada and the United States — stand to die.

The parole bill was introduced in the House of Commons in March, with Justice Minister Peter MacKay and Prime Minister Stephen Harper telling Canadians it would ensure the most dangerous, heinous and violent offenders would never find their way back onto the streets.

WATCH: Peter MacKay says new law shows Feds commitment to being ‘tough on crime’

Questions and criticism were swift, though any action on the bill was not; it has not even had one day of debate on the floor of the Commons since it was introduced in early March.

That bill was part of Harper’s tough-on-crime agenda, which the Conservatives have been pushing for years, even before they won their majority in 2011.

And it’s not the only part of that vast agenda that’s been on the backburner.

There is also C-56, the bill that would make it so repeat violent offenders could only become eligible for statutory release six months before the end of their sentence, as opposed to two-thirds into the sentence, as it currently stands. That bill was introduced March 27 and hasn’t been touched since.

The third law-and-order item that stands to die is C-60, which Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney introduced earlier this month.

The bill would close loopholes making it more difficult for foreign criminals to stay in Canada even after being convicted of serious crimes or being deemed a danger to the public. Van Loan’s office, however, didn’t include that on its list of bills it would like to see passed before the end of the sitting.

The List:

Here’s a look at all of the government bills introduced, but not passed as of May 26.

But first, Bills Becoming Laws 101:

When a bill is introduced in Parliament, it has just taken the first step of many toward becoming a law.

That step is called “first reading.” The second step, “second reading,” is when the bill is debated for the first time and voted on.

At that point, the bill is passed to a committee for study and potential amendments. Once the committee wraps up its work, the members present a report back to the floor of either the Commons or the Senate (depending whether it was an MP or senator who introduced the bill), where the proposed legislation is once again debated at what’s called “report stage,” and the parliamentarians who weren’t on committee can propose amendments.

Finally, the bill is called for debate a third time, or “third reading.” If it passes that vote, the bill is sent down the hall to the chamber that didn’t introduce the bill, where it goes through the entire process once again.

The final step, once the House and Senate have passed the bill, sees the Governor General sign off on it, and is called “royal assent.”

Below is the list of government bills that originated in the Commons and Senate during this session but have yet to finish. An asterisk denotes a bill Van Loan’s office indicated is a priority and would like to see passed before the end of the session. The list also indicates the most recent step of the legislative process each bill has passed.

Bills on the floor of the House of Commons:

• C-11 Priority Hiring for Injured Veterans Bill. First reading.
• C-33 First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act. Second reading, referred to committee.
• C-35 Justice For Animals in Service Act (Quanto’s Law). Committee reported back to the House.
• *C-42 Common Sense Firearms Licensing Act. Committee reported back to the House.
• C-48 Modernization of Canada’s Grain Industry Act. First reading.
• C-49 Price Transparency Act. First reading.
• *C-50 the Citizen Voting Act. Second reading, referred to committee. 
• *C-52 Safe and Accountable Rail Act. Concurred at report stage.
• C-53 Life Means Life Act. First reading.
• C-56 Statutory Release Reform Act. First reading.
• C-57 Support for Families Act. Rolled in C-59.
• C-58 Support for Veterans and their Families Act. Rolled into C-59.
• *C-59 Economic Action Plan 2015 Act. Second reading, referred to committee.
• C-60 Removal of Serious Foreign Criminals Act. First reading.

• *S-2 Incorporation by Reference in Regulations Act. Committee reported back to House of Commons.
• *S-3 Amend the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act. Concurred at report stage.
• *S-4 Digital Privacy Act. Committee reported back to House of Commons.
• *S-6 Yukon and Nunavut Regulatory Improvement Act. Committee reported back to House of Commons.
• *S-7,Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act. Committee reported back to House of Commons.

Bills on the floor of the Senate:

• *C-2 Respect for Communities Act Safe Injection Bill. Second reading, referred to committee.
• *C-12 Drug-Free Prisons Bill. Second reading, referred to committee.
• *C-26 Tougher Penalties for Child Predators Act. Second reading, referred to committee.
• *C-46 the Pipeline Safety Act. Second reading, referred to committee.
• *C-51 the Anti Terrorism Act, 2015. Second reading, referred to committee.