OTTAWA—There’s considerable anxiety within Canada’s intelligence community that the Senate is running out of time to pass the Liberal government’s national security reforms, the Star has learned.

The Senate’s national security committee has yet to schedule their study into Bill C-59, which has been before Parliament for almost two years. The reform package is seen as the most significant change to Canada’s national security regime since at least 2001.

The senator tasked with shepherding the bill through the upper chamber, Sen. Marc Gold, said he remains “as confident as ever” there’s time for a proper debate on the reforms.

“(But) am I disappointed that we’re still in the queue for the committee? Absolutely. Am I frustrated that I can’t … give you a precise date when it’s going to come out of committee? I can’t yet,” Gold, a member of the Independent Senators Group, told the Star Monday.

Still, should the Senate fail to study and debate the bill by June — or if there’s an early election — the bill could fall by the wayside once a general election is called.

C-59 was billed as a direct response to the previous Conservative government’s 2015 national security reforms, Bill C-51, which gave the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) controversial abilities to “disrupt” threats to national security. The Liberals put new limits on CSIS’s “disruption” activities in their reforms.

But the bill went further, creating new rules around CSIS’s collection and use of data, creating a new approval regime for espionage activities, and seriously revamping the mandate of the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada’s electronic spy agency.

“There’s absolutely a huge amount of anxiety (C-59 won’t pass Parliament),” said University of Ottawa professor Craig Forcese, a close observer of Canada’s national security regime.

“What gets me (is) the last Parliament rammed through a horrible bill (in C-51) … And here we have another Parliament on a really good bill that can’t seem to get its act together.”

The intelligence agencies have spent almost two years preparing for C-59’s reforms to take effect. The changes have been more dramatic for CSE, after C-59 proposed giving the agency the power to launch cyber attacks as well as take a more active role in providing cybersecurity advice to non-government organizations.

When asked what impact C-59 failing to become law would have on its operations, the agency would only say they are “monitoring the progress” of the bill and “expect to have CSE representatives called as witnesses” when the Senate begins its study.

“CSE continues to operate as it always has under (existing) authorities … to the fullest extent to provide the federal government with essential foreign intelligence and to help protect Canada’s most important electronic systems and networks,” wrote CSE spokesperson Ryan Foreman in a statement on Friday.

While the changes to CSIS’s operations are less structural, C-59 does contain new rules around how the agency can collect, store and analyze data on Canadian citizens and foreigners.

The agency was sharply rebuked in 2016 by the federal court for illegally retaining data on people who presented no threat to Canadian national security, collected incidentally while CSIS was legally spying on perceived threats.

“As an intelligence agency tasked with investigating threats to the security of Canada, it is essential that CSIS have the modern tools and clear authorities it requires to fulfil its mission,” wrote CSIS spokesperson Tahera Mufti in a statement Friday.

“CSIS has been working diligently to ensure that we are ready to effectively implement Bill C-59 should the legislation pass.”

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters Monday that he’s spoken with senators on both sides of the chamber about the bill, and there seems to be an “understanding” of C-59 becoming law.

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“It’s a vital piece of legislation and it needs to get done,” Goodale said.

“I will continue to encourage all my parliamentary colleagues to work toward that very important objective.”