After clocking in six days under second-reading debate, Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon’s omnibus proposal to further streamline — and accelerate — the project approval process and overhaul federal labour laws will go to a make-or-break vote this afternoon. (3 p.m.)

Barring a last-minute backbench revolt within the Liberal caucus, the 246-page bill is all but guaranteed to get the green light to proceed to the newly created LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON BILL C-39, which, as per the paperwork filed in the House of Commons yesterday afternoon, will include six Liberal MPs — Parm Bains, Caroline Desrochers, Emma Harrison, Mike Kelloway, Tim Louis and Danielle Martin — along with for MPs from the Conservative caucus — Dan Albas, Jacques Gourde, Philip Lawrence and Branden Leslie — and lone Bloc Québécois representative Gabriel Ste-Marie, with the chair — who, as per standard protocols, must be a member of the governing party — to be selected by the speaker, as flagged by Process Nerd last week.

In anticipation of the bill’s passage, New Democrat leader Avi Lewis will join his parliamentary leader, Don Davies, as well as Teme Augama Anishinabek chief Shelly Moore-Frappier and “representatives from labour, Indigenous and environmental groups,” including Canadian Union of Public Employees national secretary-treasurer Candace Rennick and West Coast Environmental Law staff lawyer Anna Johnston to “warn that we cannot build a stronger Canada by fast-tracking major projects at the expense of fundamental workers’ rights, Indigenous rights and the duty to consult, and critical environmental protections.” (9:30 a.m.)

Later this morning, Rennick will appear alongside Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske and executive vice-president Marc-Édouard Joubert and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada president Tom Doran to “set the record straight on legislation whose consequences reach far beyond the picket line,” and “call on Parliament to repeal Section 107 of the Canada Labour
Code and remove the new strike restrictions proposed in Bill C-39.” (11:30 a.m.)

Also on the docket: The Conservatives are set to devote their second designated opposition day of the fall sitting to a non-binding motion put forward by party leader Pierre Poilievre that, if adopted, would have the House of Commons formally declare that “the Liberals have been in power for 11 years, and Canada is in an affordability crisis,” which likely won’t go to a vote until MPs return from the week-long Thanksgiving hiatus later this month. (10 a.m.)

Later this afternoon, Conservative MP James Bezan will kick off the final round of debate on his backbench push to strengthen Canada’s sanction regime, which, after undergoing a rewrite at committee, is now set to secure the final approval of the House when it goes to a third-reading vote. (5:30 p.m.)

Outside the chamber, PROCEDURE AND HOUSE AFFAIRS members launch their newly self-initiated investigation into the “opportunities, risks and institutional implications arising from artificial intelligence (AI) for Canada’s democratic institutions,” including, as per the terms of reference,“its effects on the administration of Parliament, the work of individual MPs and their engagement with constituents, Parliament’s capacity to exercise oversight and hold the government to account and the conduct and integrity of federal elections,” with expert testimony from Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy senior fellows Jaxson Khan and Sean Mullin, among others. (11 a.m.)

Elsewhere on the committee circuit: PUBLIC ACCOUNTS members will get a fall briefing from Auditor General Karen Hogan and her team. (11 a.m.)

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney heads to Sherbrooke, Que., to unveil what his office is billing as “new measures to deliver clean, affordable and reliable energy to more Canadians” (11:45 a.m.) before visiting an unnamed “local manufacturing facility” later this afternoon. (2:25 p.m.)

Although the advisory offers no additional details on the announcement, senior officials from both Environment and Climate Change Canada and Housing and Infrastructure and Communities Canada have scheduled a mid-morning Zoom briefing on “new measures to help people in Canada lower energy costs, reduce emissions and increase energy efficiency.” (10 a.m.)

Elsewhere in la belle province, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly will stop by the Kirkland headquarters of Jubilant Radiopharma to share the details of a “new investment in Canada’s radiopharmaceutical manufacturing sector” that will “advance the production of medical technologies,” according to her office. (1 p.m.)

Rounding out the ministerial circuit, Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson joins Housing Trust of Nova Scotia CEO Angela Bishop at an affordable housing complex in Dartmouth, N.S., to promote new federal support for local infrastructure. (1:30 p.m. AT)

ON AND AROUND THE HILL

Amnesty International Canada secretary general Ketty Nivyabandi teams up with Black Canadians Civil Society Coalition directors Bernadeth Betchi and Lerato Chondoma, as well as other advocates and activists, to highlight a newly released report on recommendations related to the proposed United Nations Declaration on the Human Rights of People of African Descent, which, according to the advisory, “provides a comprehensive summary of community-driven proposals on collective rights, legally enforceable accountability mechanisms, Black data sovereignty, community-governed institutions, reparatory justice and emerging human rights issues such as artificial intelligence.” (10:30 a.m.)

Official Languages Commissioner Kelly Burke will hold a “virtual press conference” to go through the findings of her latest annual report, which is due to be tabled in the House of Commons this morning. (10:30 a.m.)

Also on the radar: The Parliamentary Budget Office releases its updated projections on the cost of the temporary suspension of the federal fuel excise tax, which is now set to continue until next year. (9 a.m.)

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