Sitting 95 — March 12, 2026

The sitting was dominated by debate on Bill C-13, which implements the United Kingdom’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and by a central political argument over whether the Liberal government has failed to secure fair market access for Canadian producers. Oral Questions focused on food inflation, energy policy, and the auto sector, with the Conservatives accusing the government of driving up costs through domestic taxes and the Liberals defending their trade diversification agenda.

Government Orders began with a message to the Senate on Bill C-4, the Making Life More Affordable for Canadians Act. The government moved that the House disagree with a Senate amendment to Part 4 of the bill, which concerns amendments to the Canada Elections Act. The government argued that Parliament, not the Senate, should set rules for federal party communications, that the amendment would reverse the principle of the bill’s election-law changes, and that the Senate should defer to the House on election matters. Elizabeth May (GP) opposed the motion, calling the inclusion of election-law changes in an affordability bill “scandalous” and criticizing provisions that she said would remove privacy protections for Canadians’ personal information held by political parties. The motion was carried on division.

The bulk of the sitting was devoted to third reading of Bill C-13, An Act to Implement the Protocol on the Accession of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. The bill would update Canadian law to allow the U.K. to join the CPTPP, a trade bloc of 11 Pacific Rim countries. Liberal speakers argued that the agreement would diversify Canada’s exports away from the U.S., create jobs, and strengthen ties with a G7 ally. Conservative and Bloc Québécois speakers supported the bill in principle but criticized the government for failing to resolve non-tariff barriers that block Canadian beef and pork from the U.K. market, noting that the U.K. exported millions of dollars of meat to Canada while Canadian exports were negligible. Several members also raised the issue of 100,000 U.K. pensioners in Canada whose pensions are not indexed for inflation. The Bloc Québécois and the Green Party objected to investor-state dispute settlement provisions in the agreement. The bill passed third reading on division.

Oral Questions were dominated by Conservative attacks on the government’s economic record, particularly food inflation and the industrial carbon tax and clean fuel standard, which the Conservatives said drive up grocery prices. The government replied that the industrial carbon price adds nothing to food costs and pointed to the groceries benefit and middle-class tax cuts. On energy, Conservatives demanded a strategic oil reserve and accused the Liberals of a decade of anti-oil policies; the government responded that Canada is already an energy superpower and that oil-exporting countries do not hold strategic reserves. On the auto sector, Conservatives cited falling exports and job losses, blaming the government’s failure to remove U.S. tariffs; the government said it is fighting for auto workers and creating new jobs. Other themes included housing starts, public safety (including a new lawful-access bill, Bill C-22), and the government’s response to an Iranian missile strike near a Canadian base in Kuwait.