Accessibility bill set to become law as Liberals prepare to use cloture

Ipolitics.ca
May 30, 2019
Marco Vigliotti

Landmark accessibility legislation appears poised to become law after the Liberals gave notice Tuesday in the House to move a cloture motion that would curtail future debate on Bill C-81.

Government House Leader Bardish Chagger said she planned to move a time allocation motion restricting the amount of time available for debate on amendments to the bill passed by the Senate after being unable to broker an agreement with the opposition parties.

This comes despite all the major opposition parties voicing support for passing Bill C-81 after the governing Liberals said they would accept 13 amendments from the Upper Chamber, including a provision to ensure Canada is barrier-free by 2040.

“From the debate tonight, it is clear that the opposition will not let this legislation move forward,” Chagger argued in the House.

“I just want to reassure Canadians that we will use whatever tools are necessary to ensure that we take this important step forward. Yes, there is more work to do, but this is historic legislation that needs to be passed.”

Chagger’s remarks came as the House spent the better part of the day debating Bill C-81, which would empower the government to remove barriers in environments that fall under federal jurisdiction. If passed, it would be Canada’s first piece of national accessibility legislation.

While the opposition MPs that rose to speak during the debate supported passing the bill, several complained of limitations in the law and questioned the Liberals on why it was left to the Senate to make needed enhancements.

For example, Conservative MP Mike Lake raised concerns about the use of permissive language like “may” in the legislation rather than directive language like “shall” or “must.” Accessibility advocates, he said, worry that the language choice would not bound the government and other bodies to enforce accessibility requirements.

While the legislation would certainly pass with the majority Liberals in support, Lake argued that further debate on the bill is necessary to “bring forward concerns and have the opportunity to talk about what we have heard from stakeholders.”

“Everybody in the House knows that the bill is going to pass,” he explained.

“What we have before us now is an opportunity to debate the merits of the bill as amended, to talk about the benefits of it, to maybe talk about some of the challenges that have been brought up by stakeholders and have the opportunity to ask each other questions.”

Liberal MP Kate Young countered that the opposition was “drawing out debate” on legislation that has cross-partisan support, saying it was “unfortunate” that they were delaying the enactment of historic legislation.

“It is unfortunate that this has happened. It is truly important historic legislation that we all want to come to fruition,” said Young, who serves as parliamentary secretary to the minister of public services and procurement and accessibility.

“I hope we can wrap up this debate so we can make this the historic law that it is.”

Referencing the use of shall in the bill, Liberal MP Adam Vaughan said that shared jurisdiction in some areas captured by the legislation with the provinces, municipalities and Indigenous governments means Ottawa could not “force federal laws into those areas.” As a result, some of the language in the bill was “fine-tuned to make sure it was consistent,” he said.