With MPs on the brink of a summer break, pressure is on Liberals to pass bills

With just a few days standing between MPs and summertime in their ridings, the pressure is on the federal Liberals clear their legislative priority list. Meanwhile, the Conservatives are pushing for House of Commons committees to keep working through the summer.

With just a few days standing between MPs and summertime in their ridings, the pressure is on the federal Liberals clear their legislative priority list.

Facing questions about the swirling speculation around an early adjournment, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon said Tuesday that the minority Liberals have "lots of work yet to do."

With some chatter of MPs agreeing to pull the plug on this sitting of Parliament a few days early, MacKinnon said he didn't know yet how the rest of the week will play out.

"We have lots of things that we want to accomplish," MacKinnon said. "We set out a very ambitious set of objectives for this parliamentary session. We’re close to having met them. We’re not, unfortunately, yet at the finish line, but progress is being made every day."

The House of Commons is scheduled to adjourn this Friday, but before that happens the government still needs to pass the federal budget bill, which the Conservatives oppose but has the backing of the NDP. 

There are also a few other pieces of legislation the Liberals have said they'd like to wrap up before leaving town until the fall.

The biggest bill the government is looking to pass before week's end is Bill C-69, the Budget Implementation Act, 2024, No. 1. It is likely to be expedited through the remaining House stages shortly thanks to time allocation, and is already being pre-studied in the Senate.