Hon. Pat Duncan: Honourable senators, with leave of the Senate and notwithstanding rule 5-5(j), I move:

That the reports of committees dealt with by orders no. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 under the rubric Reports of Committees – Other, under Other Business, all be adopted now.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Gina Nagano, Founder and CEO, House of Wolf & Associates Inc. She is the guest of the Honourable Senator Audette.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

The Hon. the Speaker: If you do not give leave, you must say nay. The sitting is therefore suspended to await receipt of a message from the Crown concerning Royal Assent.

[English]

The bells will start ringing five minutes before the sitting resumes.

(The sitting of the Senate was suspended.)

[Translation]

(The sitting of the Senate was resumed.)

(2250)

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the 2021-22 Annual Report of the Senate Ethics Officer, pursuant to the Parliament of Canada Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. P-1,s. 20.7.

Senator Plett: I wonder whether the senator would take a question.

Senator Gold: I’ll add that question to my inquiries.

Senator Martin: Leader, as I have raised with you before, this is a significant discrepancy between what your government says this program will cost versus the Parliamentary Budget Officer’s estimate. The PBO’s cost estimate was $5.94 billion: That is almost twice the amount the government put forward in 2019 of $3.16 billion. Yesterday’s program update from Minister Wilkinson used the figure $3.2 billion.

Leader, has your government revised its cost estimate for this program? If so, what is it?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Do we have an agreement on the time?

Senator Batters: I have just a very short follow-up on that. You mentioned it right at the end, but part of that report is to entail actually studying section 33 and perhaps its application to this. Given that this is a very infamous clause, and no one really wants to say its name, will the government actually take a serious look then at this particular clause, which was, of course, put into the Constitution by the very first Prime Minister Trudeau?

The Hon. the Speaker: Senators, before moving to the adjournment, I would like to take a moment to join our Senate leadership and thank those who have made our work here possible. It goes without saying that behind the vital work of all senators are the extraordinary staff in our offices and in each directorate across the Senate Administration.

[Translation]

Every member of the Senate family brings their expertise and experience to the table and plays a crucial role in ensuring our institution runs smoothly.

[English]

I know I speak for all senators as I extend a heartfelt “thank you” to each and every member of the Senate family who support us in our work every day, no matter how long those days tend to be on occasion. I would like to say a special “thank you” to Mr. Greg Peters, the Usher of the Black Rod, and to all our wonderful pages. I wish those pages who are moving on to new challenges the best of success and the best for your futures.

I would also like to thank the staff of the Library of Parliament, the Parliamentary Protective Service, the International and Interparliamentary Affairs Directorate, the stenographers and others in Debates and Publications, Translation Bureau and Mr. Till Heyde and the staff of the Chamber Operations and Procedure Office. Their tireless work keeps our institution running smoothly. Without their professionalism and dedication, I have no doubt we would descend into total chaos. Please know that your hard work does not go unnoticed.

[Translation]

I know I speak for all senators when I say just how much we appreciate your work.

[English]

We would also thank — and I would like to thank especially — all of our families and loved ones who make so many sacrifices so that we can do the important work that we do on behalf of all Canadians.

To my colleagues, I wish you all an enjoyable summer in the company of family and loved ones and, for at least some part of the summer, time away from your phones.

I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and safe summer recess.

Hon. Senators: Question.

The Hon. the Speaker: Honourable senators, I wish to draw your attention to the presence in the gallery of Kelly Cotter from Glenora Farm, Duncan, B.C. She is the daughter of the Honourable Senator Cotter.

On behalf of all honourable senators, I welcome you to the Senate of Canada.

Hon. Yonah Martin (Deputy Leader of the Opposition): Honourable senators, my next question for the leader concerns the Trudeau government’s promise to plant 2 billion trees by 2030. In a delayed answer provided in February, Natural Resources Canada said it was working to establish cost-sharing agreements with each of the provinces and territories, which the department said would be vital to the success of this program.

Leader, the program update that Minister Wilkinson released yesterday says the government is still “moving toward” agreements with the provinces and territories.

Could you make inquiries and tell us which agreements remain outstanding and why? Could you also find out how many trees have been planted through this program to date, broken down by province and territory?

The Hon. the Speaker pro tempore: Honourable senators, is leave granted?

Some Hon. Senators: Agreed.

The Hon. the Speaker: I see two honourable senators rising. The vote will take place now.

Motion agreed to on the following division:

On the Order:

Resuming debate on the motion of the Honourable Senator Moncion, seconded by the Honourable Senator Pate, for the third reading of Bill C-19, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2022 and other measures.

Senator Plett: Thank you, Senator Tannas. First, this is in no way to take away from your speech. I agreed with it 100%. As I said earlier today, Senator Tannas, I think I gave you a fair bit of credit for suggesting a way forward because of your issues about giving leave — or your caucus’s issues about giving leave — and how the Leader of the Government could move this forward.

I spent a bit of time this afternoon talking about and maybe paving the way for explanations that I have to make out there about what might be perceived as time allocation or a programming motion. So I guess I want to read something into the record and then ask you a question.

I just looked up what a programming motion, in fact, means. A programming motion can be used by the government to timetable a bill’s progress through the House of Commons by setting out the time allowed for debate at each of its stages. The motion is usually put forward for agreement immediately after a government’s bill has passed its second reading. Typically, it’s the government that would put forward a programming motion which would have time allocation, and so on and so forth.

I guess, Senator Tannas, I’m only asking this for the record because I don’t know that we need to debate what a programming motion is. I do not want to take anything away from Senator Gold. He has been very cooperative in trying to work this through. However, if the story is to be told correctly, this was actually a motion and an idea brought forward by the leader of the largest group in the Senate and the Leader of the Opposition in order to bring this to a close and to put some time constraints on it. The government agreed after the other four parties agreed.

I would simply like your affirmation that that, in fact, was the progress that was followed here.

The Hon. the Speaker: All those in the chamber who are opposed to the motion will please say “nay.”

Hon. Robert Black, Chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, presented the following report:

Thursday, June 23, 2022

The Standing Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry has the honour to present its

FIFTH REPORT

Your committee, to which was referred Bill S-236, An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act and the Employment Insurance Regulations (Prince Edward Island), has, in obedience to the order of reference of June 7, 2022, examined the said bill and now reports the same with the following amendment:

1.New clause 4, page 1: Add the following after line 17:

and with certain observations, which are appended to this report.

Respectfully submitted,

ROBERT BLACK

Chair

(For text of observations, see today’s Journals of the Senate, p. 793.)