Here's how Sask. MPs voted on key bills in the House of Commons

REGINA -

Saskatchewan’s 14 current members of parliament have voted on several key issues in the House of Commons since being elected in the fall of 2019.

Two parliamentary sittings – including one disrupted by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – have occurred since the Liberals re-formed government.

A number of major bills have passed through the House over the past two years, with some votes dividing Parliament. While every Saskatchewan riding is represented by a member of the Conservative Party, not all members voted along party lines for each vote.

Here’s a look at how Saskatchewan’s MPs voted since 2019.

BILL C-6

The majority of Saskatchewan’s representatives in the house voted against Bill C-6, an act to criminalize the act of causing a person or child to undergo conversion therapy without their consent.

The bill proposed amendments to the Criminal Code prohibiting unwanted religious counselling meant to change a person’s sexual orientation to heterosexual or gender identity to cisgender.

On the third and final reading of the bill, 13 out of 14 Saskatchewan MPs voted against it. Michael Kram, the representative for Regina-Wascana, was the only holdout who voted in favour of the bill.

Most of the Conservatives in the House voted against the bill, but party leader Erin O’Toole joined the other leaders and caucuses and voted to pass the legislation.

The bill was passed 263-63 in the House of Commons on June 22 and moved onto the Senate for consideration.

BILL C-10

Despite opposition from the Conservative Party, Bill C-10 was also sent along to the senate in the final days of the House sitting.

The bill aimed to have increasingly profitable streaming companies become regulated by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

The CRTC regulates all broadcasters operating in Canada through the Broadcasting Policy for Canada, while streaming services like Netflix, Crave and Amazon Prime Video are not.

The proposed changes would result in online platforms, such as social media and streaming services, spending millions of dollars to support Canadian content and creators.

All 14 Saskatchewan MPs voted against Bill C-10. It passed with a 196 to 112 vote and is under consideration in the senate.

Conservatives criticized the bill, citing concerns about every day users being subjected to CRTC regulations on user-generated content. The Department of Justice concluded that amendments to Bill C-10 would not restrict the freedom of expression of social media users under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

BILL C-15

The House of Commons passed Bill C-15 in May. It states that the federal government must take measures to ensure the laws of Canada are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

The entire Conservative caucus, including the 14 Saskatchewan MPs, voted against the bill.

The declaration establishes a “universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous peoples of the world and it elaborates on existing human rights standards and fundamental freedoms as they apply to the specific situation of indigenous peoples,” the UN states on its website.

The bill passed with a 210 to 118 vote in the House and received Royal Assent on June 21, 2021.

The implementation of UNDRIP fulfilled a campaign promise from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007.

NOTABLE PRIVATE MEMBER BILLS SPONSORED BY SASK. MPS

Two other Private Member bills that made headlines over the past year were sponsored by Saskatchewan MPs.

Saskatoon-Grasswood representative Kevin Waugh sponsored Bill-218, which would legalize single-game sports betting in Canada.

The act would allow individual provinces to manage a “lottery scheme that involves betting on a race – other than horse-race – or fight, or single sport event or athletic contest.”

The bill passed on its second reading in the house with a vote of 303 to 15. Three Saskatchewan MPs voted against the bill: Kelly Block (Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek), Rosemarie Falk (Battlefords-Lloydminster) and Cathay Wagantall (Yorkton-Melville).

The bill received royal assent on June 29.

Wagantall sponsored Bill C-233, which sought to ban doctors from performing an abortion based on the sex of a fetus.

The bill was negatived with an 82 to 248 vote following its second reading in the House. All 14 Saskatchewan MPs voted in favour of the bill.

2021 ELECTION

Thirteen of 14 Saskatchewan MPs are seeking to retain their seats in the 2021 federal election.

• Battlefords—Lloydminster – Rosemarrie Falk
• Carlton Trail-Eagle Creek – Kelly Block
• Cypress Hills – Grasslands – Jeremy Patzer
• Desnethe – Missinippi – Churchill River – Gary Vidal
• Regina-Lewvan – Warren Steinley
• Regina-Wascana – Michael Kram
• Regina-Qu-Appelle – Andrew Scheer
• Prince Albert – Randy Hoback
• Saskatoon – Grasswood – Kevin Waugh
• Saskatoon University – Corey Tochor
• Saskatoon West – Brad Redekopp
• Souris – Moose Mountain – Robert Kitchen
• Yorkton – Melville – Cathay Wagantall

Moose Jaw – Lake Centre – Lanigan MP Tom Lukiwski stepped down from his seat ahead of the election.

With files from CTVNews.ca