Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer praised the fact that Conservative amendments were approved in committee.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Liberal MPs have agreed to support Conservative amendments to the minority government’s budget bill, paving the way for the key legislation to move forward.
Budget bills are generally considered confidence matters, meaning a government defeat on a related vote could trigger a snap election. A high stakes showdown over the bill now appears unlikely, after the House of Commons finance committee wrapped up its work on the bill Monday.
The Conservative amendments to Bill C-15 add restrictions to a section that would allow cabinet ministers to exempt companies from some federal laws, with the exception of the Criminal Code.
The government has said the provisions are meant to assist innovative companies by creating a “regulatory sandbox” for situations such as testing new products. The Conservatives criticized the proposed new powers as excessive.
The amendments approved Monday are aimed at restricting the new provisions to financial and environmental technology companies, increasing public reporting and limiting the list of laws that can be exempted, among other changes.
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Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer praised the fact that Conservative amendments were approved in committee.
“Liberals tried to write into that law unprecedented powers to bypass legislation and regulations, and Conservatives sounded the alarm,” he said. “We are very pleased that we were able to force the government to adopt our amendments.”
Mr. Scheer wouldn’t say whether his party would now vote in favour of the budget bill or simply allow it to pass through other procedural means.
His comments did not suggest a desire to escalate the fight over the budget bill.
“I think it’s important to understand that the budget itself has already passed. That happened back in November. We sounded the alarm on these specific provisions,” he said.
The committee is expected to report the amended bill back to the House of Commons this week. It could potentially be approved and sent to the Senate before the end of the week.
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John Fragos, a spokesperson for Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, said in an email that the original “regulatory sandbox” provisions were based on consultations with industry leaders and aimed at reducing red tape.
“These regulations, as initially drawn up, were not broadly supported by the Opposition and were holding up consensus on a very important bill that advances Canadian competitiveness and innovation,” he said.
The Liberal government released the 2025 budget on Nov. 4. On Nov. 17, the government narrowly survived a confidence vote on a motion to approve the budget. It passed in a 170-168 vote. On that day, four MPs – two NDP and two Conservative – did not vote. One of those Conservative MPs, Matt Jeneroux, crossed the floor this month to join the Liberal caucus.
A day after that close November vote, the Liberals introduced Bill C-15, a budget bill with more than 600 pages of legislative changes.
The parties in the House of Commons have generally avoided a repeat of the nail-biting November vote since then by approving confidence matters “on division,” meaning the decision should not be considered unanimous, but no recorded vote is taken.
Bloc Québécois proposes banks be held liable for customer fraud losses
Meanwhile, an amendment proposed by the Bloc Québécois to require banks to reimburse customers who fall victim to fraud was defeated.
The Liberal and Conservative members of the finance committee voted against the amendment, which would have held banks liable for fraud losses except in instances where the customer has been grossly negligent.
Bloc finance critic Jean-Denis Garon told the committee that a similar policy has been effective in Britain.
The Canadian Bankers Association, which represents more than 60 domestic and foreign banks operating in the country and their nearly 300,000 employees, had said the proposed amendment would not prevent scams and may have had unintended negative consequences.
With a report from Alexandra Posadzki in Toronto