The evolving role of the chamber of 'sober second thought'

Canadians have seen a shift in how the Red Chamber operates over the last few years, and the government's representative in the Senate says the changes show that senators are doing their jobs.

The Senate has amended 16 out of the 41 bills brought forward by the Trudeau government, and more senators are sitting as independents now.

"I think it's a norm," Peter Harder told The House. And while he said there's no hard-and-fast rule on how amendments occur in the Senate, they're getting more common.

Several recent bills have shown that the Senate isn't afraid to disagree with the House of Commons.

In a rare move, Bill C-49 — the government's wide-reaching overhaul of national transportation regulations — was sent back to the Commons twice.

The legalization of recreational marijuana use was another topic that bounced between the two chambers. Senators proposed 46 amendments to the Trudeau government's main cannabis bill, C-45. The government rejected a number of them.

And now the headaches are coming from C-69, which would set new rules for energy projects in Canada. Opponents of the bill argue it would make it virtually impossible to get approval for any new projects, and that it ignores responsible resource development. The bill would require the assessment of not just environmental considerations but also of health, social and economic impacts, as well as effects on Indigenous peoples, over the long term. 

The bill's second reading in the Senate was completed in mid December. C-69 is now with the Senate committee on energy, the environment and natural resources.

Harder said he's been lobbied by stakeholders on that bill, and many other groups have reached out regarding other legislation.

"It informs part of the reflections senators are called to exercise," he said. "I see nothing nefarious in that."

Asked about the roles of the Senate and Commons moving into an election year, Harder said the chambers have to play complementary roles as the two cogs of Parliamen.

"The Senate is a revising chamber, not a defeating chamber," he said.