Government Representative in the Senate Sen. Peter Harder makes his way the the Senate Chamber on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 20, 2018. iPolitics/Matthew Usherwood

Senators have successfully brought forward amendments to one-third of bills moved by the Trudeau government over the past four years, a new report says.

The findings of today’s report from the Government Representative Office (GRO) in the Senate, a Trudeau-era creation, suggests the Senate under the Liberal reforms has become a more effective, diverse and less partisan institution, even as it has refrained from defeating any government legislation.

According to the GRO, the reformed Senate has also stopped using time allocation to cut off debate or whipping votes for independent Senators, who now form a majority in the Upper Chamber. It also claims the new Senate has “strengthened proactive disclosure of expenses” and more aggressively disciplined members for “unethical behaviour,” all while introducing televised proceedings.

“We have made important progress towards rebuilding trust with Canadians, who count on the Senate to comprehensively review and, when necessary, revise legislation developed by our elected representatives,” Sen. Peter Harder, the government’s representative in the Senate, said in a statement.

“So far so good. But there is still work to be done to cement the advances we have made.”

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While serving as Liberal leader in 2014, Justin Trudeau took the first step in his efforts to reform the Senate by disbanding his party’s Upper Chamber caucus. While many of the senators continued to identify as Liberals, they no longer met with the House Liberal caucus or had any other formal affiliation with the party.

After forming the government in 2015, the Liberals overhauled the Senate appointment process in an effort to reduce partisanship, bringing in what the party has labelled a merit-based, non-partisan selection regime. Since that time, all new senators have been appointed as independents, with many joining the Independent Senators Group, which, unlike a traditional caucus, doesn’t try to influence its members in votes and lacks a formal leader as well as any apparent ideological tilt.

In place of a traditional caucus, Trudeau named Harder the government’s representative in the Senate, with Sen. Diane Bellemare and Sen. Grant Mitchell serving as Harder’s legislative deputy and government liaison, respectively. In turn, the government caucus, as it exists in the new Senate, has three official members.

And thanks to the new appointment process, two thirds of senators now sit as independents, as in they do not sit with any partisan caucus in the Upper Chamber, such as the remnants of the nonaffiliated Liberal caucus and the Conservative one, which forms the official opposition.

Fifty senators have been appointed under the new process, according to the GRO report.

Some critics and opposition members, though, charge that the new senators are only nominally independent and have largely supported government legislation and policies. While it’s true the Senate hasn’t defeated any government legislation, senators appointed by Trudeau under the new process have voted against the government several times, most notably in the extremely tight vote to pass into law legislation banning oil tanker traffic off B.C.’s north coast.

Senate Conservative Leader Larry Smith, though, has frequently charged that most senators appointed by Trudeau have largely voted in-lock step with the government, despite purportedly serving as independents.

Sen. Smith’s office told iPolitics that if the new Senate is truly less partisan and more independent, then Sen. Harder should agree to a request from Conservative Sen. Donald Plett to recall the upper chamber’s justice committee to hear from Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion about his report on the SNC-Lavalin affair.

“If the Senate is truly better by being more independent and less partisan, then it should allow for the parliamentary officer, Commissioner Dion, to appear at the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs to address his findings on the Trudeau II report,” Smith’s office said in an email message.

“Actions speak louder the words.”

But as the GRO report states, 29 of the 88 government bills passed over the past four years have included Senate amendments, including contentious legislation overhauling the assessment process for major resource projects, legislation legalizing recreational cannabis use, a bill abolishing solitary confinement and another ending gender discrimination in registration under the Indian Act, among other bills.

It also notes that 47 per cent of senators are now women, compared to 37 per cent at the end of the last Parliament, and there are 12 senators with Indigenous backgrounds compared to five previously.

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