Bill C-50 (Historical)

Appropriation Act No. 1, 2007-2008

An Act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the federal public administration for the financial year ending March 31, 2008

[Les Linklater]

The reason you see the differentiation is as a result of the legislative changes that were implemented in Budget 2008--Bill C-50, as we refer to it.

As I said in my opening remarks, essentially that legislation provided the department with the tools to actually manage intake for the first time in a substantive way for this category. The ministerial instruction authority is quite broad. It can apply to almost all categories, with the exception of refugees either in Canada or overseas, or requests for agency in Canada.

Effectively what that allowed us to do was to give the minister the authority to prioritize certain applications covered by an instruction.

For the first set of instructions that came into effect in November of 2008 retroactive to February, certain applications were prioritized and put into process and others were returned. With regard to those from before February, we will process them as we move through the current intake, under ministerial instruction.

Automotive Industry

[Jim Flaherty, Conservative, Minister of Finance]

Mr. Speaker, the question posed relates to the availability of credit. As the member will know, in Bill C-50, which the opposition for the most part voted against, we provided the Bank of Canada with additional powers in order to provide liquidity in the system. We have also taken some extraordinary steps as a government in the past number of weeks to ensure adequate liquidity in the system so that not only can credit be available, but that it can be available on reasonable terms.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, the effect of this amendment would be to—I don't want to camouflage this in any way—incorporate what was Bill C-50 in the last Parliament into this. What we are doing is moving a piece of legislation that was---

[Mark Holland, Liberal, Ajax—Pickering, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Senator.

This is my concern, Senator. We know that only one-quarter of 1% of animal abuse complaints result in conviction. That means that dealing with the penalties only deals with one-quarter of 1% of the problem.

We have a bill in front of us that is opposed by every animal welfare group in Canada. We have over 130,000 signatures opposing this bill and supporting what was Bill C-50, which is now my private member's Bill C-373. We have a Facebook group with over 7,000 Canadians. The previous Bill C-50, now Bill C-373, has been passed by the House of Commons two times.

Senator, you said--

Interim Supply

[Vic Toews, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

moved that Bill C-50 be concurred in at report stage.

[Vic Toews, Conservative, President of the Treasury Board]

moved that Bill C-50, An Act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the federal public administration for the financial year ending March 31, 2008, be read the first time.

(Motion deemed adopted and bill read the first time)