The Senate is expected to adjourn this week — seven days earlier than its scheduled shutdown date — leaving work on some of the government’s key measures to be taken up again at the end of January.

Sources say the Senate will get some major legislation through before it adjourns, although a bill to introduce an airline passenger rights regime and two bills to implement the Liberal plan to legalize cannabis will be left over for next year’s sittings.

The Senate has taken the rare step of scheduling five full days of sittings for last week and this week, each of them jammed with committees from early morning to late in the day after a readjustment of normal work days for the Upper Chamber.

Bills C-45 and C-46, the two pieces of legislation making cannabis legal in Canada for recreational use, are expected to be in limbo until the resumption of Parliament.

The first bill in the series, C-45, contains the nuts and bolts of criminal code amendments to legalize cannabis, including allowing public possession of 30 grams of cannabis to individuals aged 18 and over, a point of contention with some provinces who want the age limit set at 19.

The Senate voted the bill into committee for witness and evidence hearings less than two weeks ago, on Nov. 30.

Bill C-46, the second cannabis bill, contains proposed criminal code amendments that would strengthen Criminal Code provisions covering the operation of a motor vehicle while impaired by drugs, including cannabis.

Provincial governments want a greater share of cannabis taxation revenue because, among other things, they foot the bill for criminal law enforcement, and the Senate has yet to send Bill C-46 into committee hearings.

In the meantime, the Senate is preparing to give final passage to Bill C-63, an omnibus budget implementation bill still under Senate scrutiny after Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s spring budget.

The expectation of an early adjournment by the Senate, which has only a calendar outline for five days of possible chamber sittings next week, indicates the Senate will be adjourning the same week the House of Commons adjourns.

Although the move has some noses out of joint in the House of Commons, this year the Senate — unlike in previous sessions — began sitting in September on the same day as the House of Commons. The Senate normally convenes a week after the Commons while it awaits new legislation, and adjourns a week later.

In total, the Senate will have held 37 days of sittings since last September. As is normal, until last week the Senate had sat for only three days each week after the sittings began in the fall.

The Senate is expected to adjourn Thursday for the holidays and winter recess.