The Senate has backed away from insisting to the House of Commons that provinces should be be allowed to ban home cultivation of cannabis.
Senators voted 45 to 35 against a Conservative push to insist the House accept the Senate’s home grow amendment. If the vote hadn’t failed, it would have sent the bill into a legislative ping-pong match between the two chambers, delaying the bill.
The Trudeau government had earlier rejected most of the Senate’s major changes to the bill, and home cultivation was arguably the biggest sticking point. It now appears that the Senate could finish with the legalization bill as early as this evening.
In debate Tuesday, Tory Sen. Claude Carignan – who proposed the motion that would have had the Senate insist to the Commons it must reconsider its stance on home grow – said the government’s decision to force provinces to allow home growing pot left him “dumbstruck” and “disappointed.”
The Senate amendment was aimed at avoiding legal challenges on provincial jurisdiction prohibit home cultivation. Backing down on it means that once the bill becomes law, all Canadian households will be allowed to grow four plants. Opposing provinces wrote to the federal government last week asking it to accept the Senate changes, but the Trudeau Liberals ultimately rejected the Senate’s major proposed changes to the bill.
Conservative Sen. Ghislain Maltais said the government should have had all the provinces and territories on board with their legalization framework before putting the bill forward, adding that the government’s rejection of the Senate’s homegrow proposal “flies in the face” of Quebec and Manitoba’s legislatures. Both have opted to prohibit it in their own jurisdictions.
He said he wants co-operative federalism in Canada, and that the government “gets along with the provinces and avoids confrontation.”
But Independent Sen. Frances Lankin said the bill does not present the Senate with anything as serious as a constitutional crisis that would compel the Senate to insist on the issue.
“I don’t want us to blow this out of proportion,” she said, and added that doing so “might suit some people’s agendas” in the chamber.
Independent Sen. Andr Pratte, who disagrees with forcing home cultivation on provinces, said the “odds” of the Trudeau government changing its mind on the issue are “very small.”
And he warned senators they would find themselves on the wrong side of public opinion if they “trigger a political crisis” over the bill.
“The Senate’s credibility is fragile, as you know,” he said. “Any faux pas at this stage could risk the modest gains that we have made.”
“Do we provoke a parliamentary crisis that could last weeks … on a matter that is important but not crucial? I say no on this question.”
He said the Senate shouldn’t get into an “arm-wrestling match” with the government each time it disagrees on something, and suggested the home grow jurisdiction issue should be left to the courts to decide.
“The gains at play in this vote are very improbable, but the risks are high,” he said. “Not for the government. Not for any party or group, but for the Senate.”
Still, Conservative senators continued to raised concerns with the prospect of legalization and insisted that the Senate’s amendments would have improved the bill.
Tory Sen. David Tkachuk said Bill C-45 “proves you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.”
“But God knows we tried.”
He said that in 50 years, a Canadian government “will be apologizing to the Canadian people” for the “havoc” the legislation will cause.