Senator Gold: You having been here for 15 years and I for 6 and a half years, we know that following Royal Assent there is a regulatory process. Following Royal Assent, there will be a process around the policy direction. I outlined that process to you and I will remind you it involves public consultation, public input, both at the front end and at the back end when the CRTC receives the public consultation. I will also remind colleagues — and as chair of the committee that studied the bill at length, Senator Housakos, you will also know — that the bill provides for reports to Parliament and parliamentary oversight and was improved in that regard by Senator Quinn’s amendment.

We have many tools in our arsenal, but the arsenal that we carry with us is a sense of what our role and responsibility are here in the Senate. Ninety-nine per cent of this bill was approved by this place and the other place. Of the 26 amendments, 20 were approved by three parties in the other place. This bill has been studied in this place and the other place extensively. The time has come now to recognize this is an important and good bill. The government has made firm, solid public commitments, and the text of the law is also clear with regard to what it applies to and what it does not apply to. If that is not enough for those in this chamber who in good faith want to see this bill succeed and pass, then I have run out of things to say.

If you want to kill the bill, there are lots of ways to do it. We have seen it in the past. We know how to do that. We can delay it. We can hope for another election. We can get it buried, and it will die on the Order Paper. But for those of us who believe that this is a good bill, a bill that has been improved by our amendments, and who believe that the elected members of the House of Commons have done their responsible duty and taken us seriously and have approved 20 out of 26 amendments, the time now is to give it Royal Assent.

Senator Gold: Thank you for your question, and, given your experience in public service and regulation, thank you also for underlining the regulatory science that requires a certain amount of flexibility.

The government’s reassurances will come in the policy directive upon which it has made a clear commitment in this place and elsewhere. That will give those folks — and all the folks we’ve heard from — an opportunity to also provide input, as they will when the CRTC carries out its consultations around those matters, to say nothing of the regulatory process.

The record of our debates, our Senate study, my speech and other speeches will also be part of the record. It will be part of the record that the courts and government will look at. We have the ability to both receive reports in this house thanks to the bill and to your amendment, Senator Quinn, and the ability, because we’re the masters of our own house, to hold the government to account. Committees can do follow-up studies. We have many tools in our arsenal to make sure that those voices receive a respectful hearing, which they have.

The government and the two opposition parties took a different view of the well-intentioned and creative amendment, but it did not find favour with the majority of members of the House.

But, yes, I think we have done our job. We’ve done our job well. The government has made a clear commitment to make sure it’s scoped out, and I have confidence that it will keep its word.