Front Burner - Liberals push through bills as Parliament wraps

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

It was a busy end to the season in the House of Commons. CBC Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Barton is here to talk about what happened, what it tells us about Carney’s majority government, and what we can expect in the months to come. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

I am an actor, fresh out of theater school with big dreams and an even bigger drug habit. But things are pretty good. That is until my best friend is set up on a date with David Lee Roth. Yeah, from Van Halen. If you know, you know. From CBC's personally, this is Discount Dave and the Fix. The true-ish story about how a fake rock star led me to a real trial that held up a mirror to me. And okay, let's just say that not everyone in this story is who you think they are.

Personally, discount Dave and the Fix. Available now on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC podcast. Hey everybody, it's Jamie. It was a busy end to the season in the House of Commons with a lot of activity to wrap up. And a lot still to look ahead to. So today, CBC's chief political correspondent, Rosemary Barton, is here. We're going to talk about what happened, what it tells us about Carney's majority government,

and what we can expect in the months to come. Rosie, hey, it's great to have you. Hey, Jamie. So I want to start with just a big picture snapshot of what the last couple of weeks before Parliament wrapped up for summer actually looked like because there was a lot of action at the end there. And frankly, it was like a little bit hard to keep up with. So maybe just take us through the broad strokes. Yeah, hard for me too, I should say, because there was a lot happening all at once.

And the government was also tabling legislation that's going to be followed up on in the fall. and I know we can talk more about that. But you could definitely see that as the Carney government got their majority through all the things that we've talked about in the past, the floor crossing, that allowed them to push things through so they could get some stuff done before breaking for the summer. So, for instance, the spring economic update got through, which was pretty important because it included things like the pause on the gas excise tax. Canada's new government will temporarily suspend the federal fuel excise tax until Labor Day.

We're also removing the fuel excise tax on aviation fuels. There was another piece of legislation that got through that makes it illegal to intimidate people outside religious or cultural institutions. There was another one that got through that prohibits engaging in patterns of coercive controlling behavior against an intimate partner, a bail bill that had been demanded for months, if not years, by premiers and police officers that also got through. some pretty substantial pieces of legislation got passed more than, I think, about 21 overall government bills. And it got done in large part because they had this majority and could push them through more quickly. And I know some of this legislation was fairly uncontroversial, but not all of it. And so what were the most controversial parts? Controversial would be around that

C9. That was the one around hate speech. There were some concerns around the idea that the government was moving to define what hate is and somehow impeding people's ability to protest or express themselves outside of particular religious and cultural institutions, as I said. So that was a hard one for the government to navigate, but they got it to a place that they thought it was acceptable. And as I said, now, even if there's controversial legislation, the government can push to have it done regardless of what anyone else is saying. Yeah. Yeah. And we've also, we've talked on the show quite a bit about Bill C-22. The lawful access legislation.

It gives law enforcement the ability to get access to digital information more quickly. And easily, the liberals recently dismissed critics' privacy concerns around that as like tinfoil hat, paranoid conspiracy theories. This is a very real set of reforms in terms of criminal justice.

What it has met from the conservatives is this wall of conspiracies, theory, frankly, paranoid. I was also surprised to see that tucked within bill C-30, a finance bill that implements the spring economic update, where major changes to Canada's Pest Control Products Act, that gives Cardi's cabinet authority to greenlight pesticides that ministers feel is in the interest of economic or national food security. So, like, a number of environmental and health organizations are denouncing this change as well.

Yeah, so I'll take the pesticide. first, if I can. So that was the idea that now cabinet or ministers can suspend bans on certain kinds of pesticides if there is a national security or food security issue. No one in the government has explained why that is needed or how they would use it. And generally when a government varies something in an omnibus bill like the Spring Economic Update, you get a little skeptical about why they're doing that. C-22 was fraught. And it has not. yet become law. It is moving on to the Senate, but the government shut down debate on third reading on that. And it was fraught because, again, it was this push and pull between what can we provide

to law enforcement agencies to help them uncover things, to do their job better, versus protecting people's privacy rights. They got to a place with some government amendments that shorten the amount of time that these companies can hold on to the metadata that accumulates around your activities online. They got that down from one year to six months, which the government thought was in some ways a compromise. That thing will also be reviewed by an independent agency.

The government makes the point that we are the last G7 country to not have authorities that have this ability to do this. And so that's what they felt they needed to act with some urgency. So it is still controversial, but there were some changes made to respond to some of that. Is it possible that any of these bills, like the Lawful Access Bill, that haven't yet gotten through the Senate, could still get scuttled? It's possible that the Senate makes a stink about C-22 for sure.

But generally, when the government hands something off to the upper chamber, the upper chamber must move on the advice and desires of the government. but it would be another opportunity to make amendments or to make sure that the legislation is as good as it can be. All these other ones that I've mentioned, they are all done and dusted. I mean, C30 on Saturday received Royal Assents. So it is, it is done. I was listening to at issue, your kind of weekly politics show, as I do. And I was kind of struck by. the tone of the panelists. Althea Raj was saying,

we have never seen anything like this ever. Chantelli Bear called it. Unprecedented to find the government using its newly found majority, not obtained at the polls, to speed up or force feed nine bills to the House of Commons. And what is so unusual that's happening here? Is it the speed? Is it the volume? Like, what are they talking about when they say that? Yeah, I'm always hesitant to use words like unprecedented because I've been here for a long time,

and I remember other majority governments doing a lot of things to make sure their agenda was accomplished. But I will say this. We saw the government use a series of different tools, procedural tools, that allow them to limit or shut down debate. Things like time allocation, programming motions, a bunch of like very nerdy things that our friend Aaron Werry could explain to you much better than I can. But they're all, they're all have the same goal to stop debate from moving forward and to get the legislation through. Part of the reason the government says it does that, yes, is to advance its own interests, but also because they say the opposition parties were not having a real debate. We're filibustering. We're just, you know, shouting into the, into this air about things and that it was time for the legislation to proceed.

So I think it is the number of tools the government used to do this. and the timeframe in which it did it. Because that's a lot of legislation in a very short period of time. And I think part of the reason why that has happened is because, again, as I've been saying, before they had a minority and they had a majority, much easier to push things through, obviously, when you have that. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I also want to talk about these bills that they've tabled that haven't passed yet.

Big signature bills focused on regulating technology that came out in the last few weeks, really. we've talked a lot about the online harms bill on the show already, but there's also the proposed creation of a new digital regulator and an update to Canada's privacy laws. And can you just walk me through that a little bit? Yeah. So I'll do the privacy one because I think that probably didn't get enough attention because it came towards sort of the end of the city. It's the third attempt to get this kind of legislation passed, much like the Safe Social Media Act, which I know you've talked a lot about. And again, this is another example of how far can the government go in regulating something versus protecting people's rights. So this piece of legislation, if passed, would allow for Canadians to ask for their personal information to be deleted.

There would be some exceptions to that. But take, for example, all the AI generated deep stakes of Rosemary Barton that are out there, and there are a lot of them, I would be able to go and try and have those pulled down. It changes the standards around particularly children's data to better protect them online. And it very interestingly actually puts all of that enforcement inside that new digital regulation commission that the government also wants to create. So it would no longer be the purview of the privacy commissioner in Canada who would be dealing with public government things.

But private issues, citizen issues, corporations, that would all. now go inside this commission that the government has yet to create. And there'd be some big fines attached to this kind of thing, $10 million or 3% of global revenue. I think the central issue, though, there, much like the Safe Social Media Act, is enforcement, right? How do you enforce it when the companies don't actually exist in Canada? They're based somewhere else. So how do you go after it? The government says that it plans to do it. But enforcement, as much on the privacy issues as the social media issues, I think is where the Ruppers going to hit the road a little bit. You know, someone who is 14 and is worried about a social media ban probably doesn't have to worry

because by the time this all gets done, they'll be 16. Yes. Sorry, that's a good point that all of this is looking like will likely be implemented, what, like 18 months from now, at least, right? That's one of the criticisms. You know, certainly another one is that they haven't done enough here on AI chatbots, which are like a growing and very imminent concern. So, complex. I am an actor, fresh out of theater school with big dreams and an even bigger drug habit.

But things are pretty good. That is, until my best friend is set up on a date with David Lee Roth. Yeah, from Van Halen. If you know, you know. From CBC's personally, this is Discount Dave in the Fix, The trueish story about how a fake rock star led me to a real trial that held up a mirror to me. And okay, let's just say that not everyone in this story is who you think they are. Personally, discount Dave and the Fix.

Available now on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. As you look back over not just the last few weeks, but the last few months since Carney got the majority, what would you say all of these actions say to you about what his priorities here? I think there's two priorities. I think the first one is the economy, and that's why that spring economic update and some of those affordability measures contained in it were important, obviously vital. And then I think the other one is about sort of, for lack of a better term, Canada of the future, and maybe we are coming to some of this stuff belatedly. But I think between the AI strategy, the safe social media, the privacy, the lawful access,

It's about putting all of these pieces together to make sure that Canada is on a certain path to being on the, I don't want to say the cutting edge because as I said, we're behind it in some ways, but to be a little more sure of where we're going with some of these big things. And that's in part because the prime minister in particular really thinks that artificial intelligence is going to solve a lot of problems for the government and for Canadians. And I know you've talked to the minister about that kind of thing and the trust piece, but that is part of what he sees as the economy of the future for Canada. We're launching a national AI literacy initiative, offering training to all Canadians across the country in classrooms, workplaces, libraries, community centers. With free and trustworthy AI learning kits, including courses and modules, Canadians will better understand AI. be able to use it safely and confidently and put it to work in their own lives. So I think they all are sort of driving towards his economic vision of the country in very different ways.

Do you think that his kind of all-in attitude on AI or his confidence and AI being the future could also become a liability for him moving forward, considering like the polling is showing basically half the country, is very skeptical about this technology and actually thinks that it's going to have a net negative effect. Yeah. And I think we don't know the answer to that yet, whether it will have a net negative effect, right? But I think that is a totally normal way for Canadians to feel about it. And I think what the government has to be wary of moving forward is that it doesn't put all its eggs in that basket without thinking about some of the consequences. If you think about job loss, again, we don't really know how that will shake down. But think about job loss. That opens up a real

interesting space for the NDP who have been talking, as you know, so much about the dangers of artificial intelligence and the labor force. So there's a concern there. You think about the data centers and people's concerns around the environment and water use. That again opens up the government to potential criticism from its progressive flank. So, I don't know how they're going to juggle that moving forward, but it does seem to be a really strong, aggressive push in that direction without us really understanding the other side of it. I would note they really didn't talk about climate change and that AI strategy at all.

So how they're going to navigate that, I'm not sure that we or they have a clear sense of that yet. Let's pitch forward now. Often the summer months are kind of sleepy for the federal government, much to my own chagrin, because we're always trying to find stuff to put up on a daily show. I like it. I like it. I know.

Take a break. I know. And you deserve it. Thank you. But I'm not sure it is actually kind of looking that way this summer, right? Because we do have this deadline approaching on Kuzma negotiations. July 1st, which is the formal deadline for when we are supposed to review or extend Kuzma. And we saw Trump and Carney chat a bit at the G7 last week on the sidelines.

So I don't think there was anything official. Where are things at with these very important negotiations right now? Like, what are you hearing? Yeah. I mean, first of all, just a reminder that, as Dominic LeBla said, I try and demystify this July 1st deadline. It's not a cliff that everybody goes hurt. hurtling off. It's a moment where the three countries could decide to extend the agreement

by adding six more years, so 16 years. And if on July 2nd, we haven't done that, the agreement remains in place for another 10 years, and there are these annual reviews. Back to what you said earlier The talks are picking up. I think that's fair to say that they are moving in the right direction, that they are talking about specific issues, they are trying to find resolution to them, look back at the complaint of the tariffs that the president put in place around forced labor. Well, the government went and then tabled its own piece of legislation to try and tighten up supply chains on forced labor. So there's things that the government is doing that it can say to the United States, We are moving on this.

Give us a minute. We'll see how far we can get. I would say, though, that there's kind of one step forward, two steps back very often here, that the minute the Canadians think that they have got a handle on something and are resolved something for the U.S., something else pops up. And it's generally because there's something that the president has thought of that is on a list. So I would say that nobody that I talk to thinks that this deadline will be hit, that they are going to go past it. but nobody that I talk to thinks that the president is actually going to terminate the deal.

In part because he would have to go to Congress, in part because he would get, you know, there would be a lot of trouble from the business sector if he did it. But the uncertainty of not knowing what's going to happen continues to be a big concern for the government because that's how private investment is done, right? If you know that something's going to be in place and you can benefit from it, you'll go ahead and invest capital, and that uncertainty is contributing to some of the concerns that the government has. Is it fair for me to say that, you know, just at this moment, the most likely scenario here is that Trump is probably going to complain about a bunch of things and they might make like a couple of

deals and that this is probably going to roll into a year-to-year review as opposed to them deciding we're going to renew this thing for 16 years? And just a year-to-year review is not necessarily great either. It's not great. And I think if that's the outcome, it still doesn't solve anything when it comes to the sectoral tariffs for us, which are really the biggest problem, obviously. You hear the prime minister say all the time, it's 85% of Canadian goods are still under Kuzma. But the sectors, whether it be softwood, steel, aluminum and others that are feeling the brunt of those tariffs need them to come down. Nobody thinks that they're going to go down to zero. That's not realistic. under Trump, but if they could somehow get them decreased, that would be a win. And I would just say there, from a political perspective, I was mentioning this on my show on Sunday, I do wonder how long the prime minister can go without getting something out of the U.S. administration. If you're elected on a promise to get a deal and to protect Canada from Trump, there's all the things that

he's doing to find new trading partners, shore up the Canadian economy, build out. But if you can't get anything from that guy, at some point, do Canadians say, ooh, I thought you were going to do better than this. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that, but I think that's something to watch as that July 1st deadline comes and goes. Let's stick with July 1st because it is Canada Day, but it is also the deadline for Alberta to submit their pipeline proposal. Fire season is already starting in BC just this past weekend. We saw evacuation orders in Lytton.

This is the village that was actually totally ravaged by fires, just five years ago now. But what kind of action do you think we could be seeing on the pipeline front this summer? And what kind of opposition might that face? Well, first of all, obviously it's Alberta that has to come up with the plan, that has to come up with the route, a proponent, or the promise of a proponent, and how this is going to work. But because of the referendum in the fall, it's all tied together.

it's all, you know, 10 times more complicated than it needed to be, frankly. If the government had just said, yes, let's do a pipeline and we'll deal with the criticism from people inside caucus or environmentalists, that would be one thing. But it is going to push forward a pipeline, probably make it a project of national interest in the fall, in part because it has to prove something to Albertans around how this country works. And that is a heck of a heck of a place to be politically, especially with a Quebec election right in the midst of all this in the fall. Quebec is the prime minister's power base, really, for his own government. And this could piss off Quebecers, right? There's a separatist party.

Yeah, and it's a separatist party. And it could, you know, climate change is usually far more valued in Quebec than in other parts of the country in polling. So to see a prime minister you've elected approve another bitumen pipeline that could create problems for the liberal party there. I think you're going to see a lot of people at Stampede. I think you're going to see a lot of people ramping up the conversation around why Alberta matters. And that is necessarily tied to the idea that Alberta should be able to use its resources and get another pipeline. I don't know, though, how the Prime Minister manages all the expectations around that. You know, I've talked to people in his caucus who say, oh, no, there won't be another pipeline.

And I'm not sure that that's the signal the Prime Minister is sending. Definitely not. And the reality is that the issues in Alberta, and I'm not in Albertan, but I've talked to enough of them, the issues in Alberta far exceed just a pipeline. So if you approve a pipeline and don't deal with all the other issues, then what's the next thing you're going to have to deal with? And I think that's the fear that a lot of people have to. Okay. That feels like a good place for us to end.

Rosie, thank you for this. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. That's all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you tomorrow. slash podcasts.