Senator Batters: Senator Gold, I told your government five years ago that this terrible bill, Bill C-69, was unfixble and would be found unconstitutional:

It intrudes on provincial jurisdiction and violates our Constitution’s division of powers. . . . The Trudeau government keeps shoving its way into matters of provincial jurisdiction.

Your government should have shelved it then but stubbornly refused. Will you shelve it now?

Hon. Denise Batters: Senator Gold, last week, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the vast majority of Bill C-69 and the entirety of its regulations are unconstitutional. The act has almost 200 sections, and the Supreme Court found only 10 sections acceptable. The court held that the “’designated project’ scheme . . . exceeds the bounds of federal jurisdiction.”

Bill C-69 was an unmitigated disaster from the start. The Trudeau government itself proposed 150 amendments at the House of Commons committee stage. The Senate passed almost 200 more, and the government accepted 99 — mostly government — amendments. Now, Minister Guilbeault says they will do their homework and tweak it a bit.

Enough, Senator Gold. Stick a fork in it; it’s done. It’s time to repeal the whole bill. When will the Trudeau government finally admit their colossal failure on Bill C-69?