Government anxious to advance marijuana reform, bill changing impaired-driving law could move quicker than pot legalization

Conservative MP Chris Warkentin, his party's deputy House leader, said the Conservatives are prepared to debate both marijuana legalization and impaired driving bills, and will be airing the 'major concerns' they’ve been hearing from people.

By RACHEL AIELLO

Liberal MP Bill Blair, the former police chief who is also a lead federal political player on the marijuana legalization file, said he wants Parliament to be able to get “well into” the debate on marijuana legalization-related bills before the summer recess, and said it’s possible Bill C-46, the impaired driving bill, could reach the finish line first.

“Certainly we’ve got a lot of work to do and we want to get on with it, but it’s a very important debate and I think Parliament has to have an opportunity to get well into it,” Mr. Blair, MP for Scarborough Southwest, Ont. and the parliamentary secretary to the Justice minister, told The Hill Times. “We’re anxious to get started and it’ll take as long as it takes.”

Debate on Bill C-46—the legislation introduced alongside the marijuana legalization bill, which would revamp Canada’s current definition of impaired driving—is scheduled to continue early next week. MPs are scheduled to debate it Tuesday, May 29, and Wednesday, May 30, as this is a break week for the House of Commons. It received its first day of debate last Friday, May 19.

It’s possible Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, could come up for debate for the first time on Friday, June 2, or in the week following, as both C-45 and C-46 are bills that the government has indicated it wants to make progress on before the summer recess.

 

While Mr. Blair wouldn’t say whether he thinks this debate could be the next big policy conversation in Canada, he said it’s “a subject that Canadians are going to be thinking and talking about,” and that he’d like moved forward with it soon.

However, NDP House Leader Murray Rankin (Victoria, B.C.) said he views it as the next big conversation.

“It’s a seismic shift in our society. For so long we’ve had prohibition—since the 1920s—and the government’s objective, I think, with the support of most Canadians, is to now no longer have prohibition,” Mr. Rankin said.

On April 13, the government introduced the two pieces of legislation in its effort to legalize marijuana. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould (Vancouver Granville, B.C.) tabled both bills.

Bill C-45, otherwise known as the Cannabis Act, creates a legal framework controlling the production, distribution, possession, safety standards, and sale of marijuana that would allow adults in Canada to legally possess and use small amounts of recreational marijuana from licensed providers. It also creates new Criminal Code offences—in some cases punishable by up to 14 years in prison—for selling or giving marijuana to minors, though there will be no criminal offence for youth who possess small amounts of legal pot. It would allow adults to posses up to 30 grams and grow up to four plants per household.

Bill C-46, or An Act to amend the Criminal Code (offences relating to conveyances), makes changes to Canada’s current impaired driving laws to make it illegal to drive within two hours of having had an illegal level of intoxicants in your blood, and gives law enforcement new powers to request roadside tests for intoxication.

“There’s a very legitimate concern that we need to address appropriately the issue of impaired driving by drugs as quickly as possible. … That was an issue that needed to be appropriately addressed prior to the implementation of Bill C-45,” Mr. Blair said, noting that it’s likely the bills will have separate paths through the legislative process.

“They’re certainly related bills. … I think its important that we move ahead expeditiously with both, but the path for the impaired legislation is a different path and quite frankly may be quicker,” he said.

Mr. Blair said cabinet has yet to determine which House committees will get each bill, but it’s expected that Bill C-46 will go to the House Justice and Human Rights Committee, though, as Mr. Blair pointed out, it also touches on public safety issues. Bill C-45 may go to the House Health Committee, although it also deals heavily with legal changes and some public safety elements.

“Getting this into the hands of committee I think is a very positive step forward and I’d like to see that done, and give committee as much time as they require,” said Mr. Blair. “These are both—but the cannabis bill in particular—complicated, complex policy, and regulatory bills that I want to make sure that committees have adequate opportunity to do the important work and make the important contributions we know that they can make.”

Mr. Blair envisions the committee study is where parliamentarians will be able to hear from the most current experts, study the latest in technology, and get the most up-to-date opinions—all areas that he said have evolved since the legislation was first drafted.

“All of that will inform the government. … I know there’s a lot of work to do and we want to get on with it, but at the same time I think it’s always worthwhile to make sure that you’re taking the time and making the effort to get it right,” he said.

Mr. Blair said from the conversations he’s been having, he thinks there’s support on all sides for the public safety aspects of both bills, but he’s using the second reading debate time to hear all the concerns other MPs have, something he said the recent move to extend sitting hours to midnight beginning on May 29 will help with.

“I’m hopeful that Parliament will be able to have a very fulsome discussion, because I think there’s still great value to be added. … So I think the extension of hours gives us an opportunity to allow people to present their positions and opinions and ask the important questions that needed to be asked, and hopefully we’ll be given an opportunity as well to answer those questions to their satisfaction so we can all move forward,” said Mr. Blair.

Conservative MP Chris Warkentin (Grande Prairie-Mackenzie, Alta.), his party’s deputy House leader, said the Conservatives are prepared to debate both bills and will be airing the “major concerns” they’ve been hearing from people, without getting into specifics.

Although he said he anticipates his caucus will support both bills going to committee, Mr. Rankin added that the NDP will be drawing attention to the constitutional concerns raised about Bill C-46 possibly infringing on the rights of Canadians in regards to the possibility of mandatory breath tests and how these could be disproportionately used against minority communities.

In regards to Bill C-45, the NDP’s plan is to draw attention to the “abject failure” of what it views as the unfairness of people continuing to be charged and have their “lives wrecked” for personal use of marijuana while the legalization bill passes through the appropriate legislative channels. The NDP wanted the Canadian government to decriminalize some pot offences in the mean time, so Canadians were not being criminally charged for an action that in the near future will be legal. The Prime Minister’s Office has not indicated that blanket pardons for small, pot-related offences or moves to immediately decriminalize cannabis are being considered at this time.

When asked about the timelines, and how far she’d like to see both of these priority bills move in Parliament by the summer recess, Government House Leader Bardish Chagger (Waterloo, Ont.) said in an email to The Hill Times that both bills will be debated in “due course.”

“Our intention with these two pieces of legislation will be to ensure that meaningful debate is had and that the legislation is moved through the legislative process in a timely fashion,” said Ms. Chagger.