By Denis Carmel
After the election on Sept. 20, 2021, the appointment of ministers on Oct. 26 and the appointment of critics on Nov. 11, the House of Commons reopened with the Speech from the Throne on Nov. 23. The parliamentary secretaries were later named on Dec. 3, the members of the Heritage and Industry committees were chosen on Dec. 9 with the chairs of these committees being elected on Dec. 13 and 14 respectively.
Despite the fact this is the continuation of the old government and some cynics could say the election did not change anything, quite a few changes are happening with a newish Heritage Minister, the same Industry Minister, changes of critics for the NDP and Conservatives, different parliamentary secretaries, and a different lineup for the committees, as well as new chairs for both.
Parliamentary Secretaries
The new parliamentary secretaries include Chris Bittle, for the Minister of Canadian Heritage. A lawyer by trade, he used to be deputy house leader of the government. His knowledge of Parliamentary procedure will be put to good use if and when the three bills sponsored by the minister are discussed in committee.
For the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Andy Fillmore from Halifax has been chosen. He was previously parliamentary secretary for the Heritage Minister. For the Minister of Rural Development, Stéphane Lauzon was selected.
All three were first elected in 2015.
Heritage Committee
On Dec. 13, the members of the committee elected their chair, Dr. Hedy Fry, a veteran of the House of Commons, having been elected in 1993. The vice-chairs are John Nater, the Conservative critic and Martin Champoux, the Bloc Québécois critic.
Other members for the Liberals are Bittle, who is a federal Liberal rookie, and Michael Coteau, who was cabinet minister and leadership candidate for the Ontario Liberals.
Also, we have Lisa Hepfner, a rookie from Hamilton who was previously a television news journalist for CHCH News as well as Anthony Housefather and Tim Louis who were on the committee when the election was called.
For the Conservatives, there is Nater, Leslyn Lewis, defeated leadership candidate, Rachel Thomas, formerly Harder who, while she may not have been a formal member of the committee, was very active in the Conservatives efforts to stall Bill C-10. She was the only one to vote against the chair this week. The other member of the committee is Kevin Waugh, the only Conservative member who was there when the election was called.
Completing the membership is Champoux, continuing as the Bloc critic and vice-chair of the committee and Peter Julian, NDP, critic and house leader.
We think this committee will be the scene of fierce procedural battles as the Heritage Minister is to reintroduce legislation to modernize the Broadcasting Act, which was not met with unanimous praise in the previous legislature. The other legislation promised to be tabled by the government is to address on-line harms, which will be controversial, and compensation for the use of Canadian news services by online services. From what we have witnessed this week, the committee could quickly become dysfunctional.
Industry Committee
The committee elected Liberal Joël Lightbound a lawyer from Québec City as chair. The two vice-chairs are Conservative Michael Kram from Saskatchewan and Sébastien Lemire, who previously held the role, from the Bloc Québécois.
The Liberal members of the committee are Han Dong, previously an Ontario MPP, Fillmore, Viviane Lapointe, a MP who was elected for the first time in the last election, Iqwinder Gaheer and Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, who was the only Liberal who was there before.
On the Conservative side, there is Industry critic, the Hon. Ed Fast and Bernard Généreux, who had been there in the past, and Tracy Gray, a new MP from Kelowna.
Brian Masse, NDP critic and previous member of the committee completes its membership.
In the past, the committee devoted most of its work to conducting studies on a wide variety of subjects and listening to the list proposed by members. Difficult choices will have to be made but they seem to work well together.
Interestingly, one of the proposals was from the Liberal Nathaniel Erskine-Smith to invite early on, CRTC Chair Ian Scott to discuss the wholesale rates decision.
