FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE REVIEW
Canada Legislative
Outlook 2026
The First Year of the Carney Government
A data-led review of how the federal government’s first-year agenda moved through Parliament, which priorities became law, how quickly legislation advanced, and what remained in the pipeline at the twelve-month mark.
26 May 2025 — 26 May 2026
104-page technical report · 45th Parliament · First Session · Anniversary snapshot
- Government Bills
- 35
- Substantive policy bills
- 29
- Substantive enactments
- 8
- Substantive legislative conversion
- 27.6%
- Bills carried into Year Two
- 21
Conversion measures statutory completion — not policy completion, implementation or effectiveness.
Data and text equivalent
| Measure | Bills / rate |
|---|---|
| Government Bills introduced | 35 |
| Substantive policy bills | 29 |
| Appropriation bills | 5 |
| Pro forma bill | 1 |
| Substantive enacted | 8 |
| Substantive carryover | 21 |
| Total conversion | 13/35 = 37.1% |
| Substantive conversion | 8/29 = 27.6% |
Total enactments = 8 substantive + 5 appropriation Acts. Conversion measures statutory completion.
Sources: [1] Parliament of Canada
Year One in one view
The Carney government entered the 45th Parliament with a broad legislative programme but without a House majority. Twelve months later, its parliamentary position had changed, selected priorities had moved rapidly into statute, a substantially larger group of bills remained before Parliament, and several major commitments were advancing through executive and administrative channels rather than completed primary legislation.
The report’s anniversary snapshot covers 26 May 2025 to 26 May 2026. Within that fixed window, 35 Government Bills were introduced across the House of Commons and Senate. Five were supply or appropriation measures and one was the House pro forma bill. Removing those six measures leaves 29 substantive policy bills: the denominator used to examine the government’s substantive legislative programme.
Eight of those 29 bills had received Royal Assent by the cutoff, producing a substantive legislative conversion rate of 27.6%. The remaining 21 bills formed the substantive parliamentary carryover into Year Two. Including appropriation legislation, 13 of all 35 Government Bills had been enacted, a total conversion rate of 37.1%. These are different measures with different denominators; neither describes the share of the government’s entire policy programme delivered.
The distinction between breadth and completion is central. Substantive introductions spanned eight primary policy areas, but enactments were concentrated in three: Economy & Fiscal Policy, Trade & Internal Market, and Immigration & Labour Mobility. Legislative activity in other fields had not yet produced substantive enactments by the anniversary date. That does not establish inactivity or failure; it identifies where statutory completion had occurred within the report’s analytical window.
Parliamentary pathways also differed. Some priorities advanced with broad cross-party support, while others encountered narrow divisions, committee scrutiny, procedural acceleration or exchanges between the two chambers. C-5 moved from introduction to Royal Assent in 20 calendar days; C-4 took 280. The House itself changed, from an initial Liberal caucus below the majority threshold to a late-Year One caucus of 174. Votes therefore belong to their particular parliamentary context, rather than a single assumed minority or majority environment.
Legislation was only one channel of governing activity. Institutions such as the Major Projects Office and the administrative launch of Build Canada Homes illustrate how executive delivery operated alongside statutory change. Immigration, fiscal and other multi-year targets required longer observation horizons. Combining these different types of commitments into a single percentage of promises delivered would obscure their distinct mechanisms and timelines.
Enactment also left further work. Some statutes were in force and being administered; others required regulations, measure-specific action or additional international steps. C-19’s delivery arrangements were prepared, but its principal special payment fell after the cutoff. Year Two consequently inherited unfinished legislation, ongoing implementation and unresolved policy outcomes. The defining pattern of Year One was not uniform legislative throughput, but selective conversion across multiple governing channels.
Legislative activity, statutory completion, implementation and policy outcomes answer different questions.
From legislative attention
to policy implementation.
A broad agenda, but concentrated statutory completion
The 29 substantive Government Bills covered eight primary policy areas. Economy & Fiscal Policy and Public Safety & Justice each accounted for seven introductions, while Indigenous & Social Policy accounted for five. The remaining measures extended across trade, housing, immigration, institutions and defence. This was a broad programme when measured by the subjects entering Parliament.
The enacted portfolio was narrower. Three substantive enactments belonged to Economy & Fiscal Policy, three to Trade & Internal Market, and two to Immigration & Labour Mobility. No bills classified primarily in the other five areas had received Royal Assent by 26 May 2026. Each bill has one primary category under the report’s analytical classification; an omnibus measure does not count repeatedly across every policy field it touches.
This contrast describes statutory completion within the anniversary window. It does not establish that fields without enactments were inactive, or that introduction alone amounted to policy delivery.
Legislative attention was broad; statutory completion was concentrated.
Data and text equivalent
| Policy area | Introduced | Enacted |
|---|---|---|
| Economy & Fiscal Policy | 7 | 3 |
| Public Safety & Justice | 7 | 0 |
| Indigenous & Social Policy | 5 | 0 |
| Trade & Internal Market | 3 | 3 |
| Housing & Infrastructure | 2 | 0 |
| Immigration & Labour Mobility | 2 | 2 |
| Institutions & Democratic Governance | 2 | 0 |
| Defence & Sovereignty | 1 | 0 |
Enacted bills are a subset of introductions; each bill has one primary policy category.
Introduced: solid bars. Enacted: outlined bars with diagonal hatching.
Sources: [1] Parliament of Canada
The agenda moved through Parliament — and beyond it
Legislative
Statutory change required
Executive / Administrative
Institutions, spending, regulation, agreements, procurement
Multi-Year Outcomes
Targets whose stated horizon extended beyond Year One
The Throne Speech did not become a single legislative checklist. C-4 supplied statutory mechanisms for income-tax and eligible first-time home buyers’ GST measures. C-5 addressed federal internal-trade and labour-mobility barriers alongside major-project authorities. C-12 supplied changes to immigration and border administration. These commitments had identifiable legislative routes.
Other priorities advanced through institutions, spending, regulation, agreements and procurement. The Major Projects Office and the administrative launch of Build Canada Homes show why counting Acts cannot capture the whole governing agenda. Statutory authority and executive administration could operate in parallel, with different milestones and evidentiary requirements.
A third track comprised multi-year outcomes, including immigration and fiscal targets whose stated horizons extended beyond Year One. Their unfinished horizons cannot be collapsed into the same denominator as a bill awaiting Royal Assent. The report therefore separates legislative conversion from executive delivery and longer-term results, rather than calculating a single percentage of promises completed.
Agenda delivery and legislative conversion are not the same measure.
Legislative acceleration was selective
Median: 157 days
Mean: 140.4 days
The eight substantive enactments did not move at a common speed. Introduction-to-Royal-Assent intervals ranged from 15 to 280 calendar days, with a median of 157 and a mean of 140.4. These measures describe the enacted portfolio; they exclude the ages of bills still before Parliament.
C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, moved from introduction on 6 June 2025 to Royal Assent on 26 June: 20 days. Broad support at its principal House stages coexisted with scrutiny and disagreement over individual provisions. C-4 followed a substantially longer route, from 5 June 2025 to 12 March 2026, an interval of 280 days.
The contrast supports selective acceleration rather than generalized legislative speed. Political support and parliamentary procedure aligned differently across measures. Legislative velocity measures elapsed time, not legislative quality, the intensity of scrutiny or policy effectiveness. A faster interval is not, by itself, evidence of a better law or a better outcome.
Data and text equivalent
| Bill | Calendar days from introduction to Royal Assent |
|---|---|
| C-19 | 15 |
| C-5 | 20 |
| C-15 | 128 |
| C-18 | 146 |
| C-3 | 168 |
| C-12 | 169 |
| C-13 | 197 |
| C-4 | 280 |
Median: 157 days. Mean: 140.4 days. Range: 15-280 days.
Elapsed time only; not a measure of legislative quality, scrutiny or effectiveness. Carryover ages are excluded.
Sources: [1] Parliament of Canada
Parliament itself changed during Year One
The government began Year One with 169 Liberal seats in a 343-seat House, below the 172-seat majority threshold. Membership changes, vacancies and by-elections altered that position. Three Liberal candidates won the 13 April 2026 by-elections; the House record explicitly reflected 174 Liberal MPs by 27 April, and that caucus size remained at the cutoff.
The report distinguishes election results from parliamentary confirmation. It does not infer exact notification dates or treat the entire year as a single parliamentary environment. C-5 and C-15 belong to the earlier minority phase. C-5 attracted broad support at principal stages, whereas C-15’s report-stage concurrence passed 168–163.
C-30’s late-May divisions occurred in the majority phase: time allocation passed 171–167 and second reading 170–164. House composition mattered, but did not produce uniform margins. Voting records establish alignment at particular stages; they do not establish individual motivations or erase the role of committee work and bicameral proceedings.
Parliamentary pathway mattered as much as parliamentary outcome.
Data and text equivalent
| Date | Event | Liberal seats | Phase | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Apr 2025 | General election baseline | 169 | Pre-window context | [11] |
| 4 Nov 2025 | Chris d’Entremont: Conservative to Liberal | 170 | Minority phase | [12] |
| 11 Dec 2025 | Michael Ma: Conservative to Liberal | 171 | Minority phase | [12] |
| 9 Jan 2026 | Chrystia Freeland resigns | 170 | Minority phase | [12] |
| 2 Feb 2026 | Bill Blair resigns | 169 | Minority phase | [12] |
| 13 Feb 2026 | Tatiana Auguste’s seat vacated; election result void | 168 | Minority phase | [12] |
| 18 Feb 2026 | Matt Jeneroux: Conservative to Liberal | 169 | Minority phase | [12] |
| 11 Mar 2026 | Lori Idlout: NDP to Liberal | 170 | Minority phase | [12] |
| 8 Apr 2026 | Marilyn Gladu: Conservative to Liberal | 171 | Minority phase | [12] |
| 13 Apr 2026 | Auguste, Begum and Martin win three by-elections | 174* | Election results | [13] |
| 27 Apr 2026 | House record explicitly reflects 174 Liberal MPs | 174 | Late-Year-One House majority phase | [14] |
| 26 May 2026 | Analytical cutoff: Liberal caucus remains at 174 | 174 | Late-Year-One House majority phase | [12] [14] |
Year One opens 26 May 2025 with 169 Liberal seats. Late-Year-One House majority phase: documented by 27 April.
*174 reflects the by-election result; 27 April is the explicit House-record confirmation.
Event spacing is categorical, not proportional to elapsed time. Exact official notification dates are not inferred.
Sources: [11] Elections Canada, [12] House of Commons, [13] Elections Canada, [14] House of Commons
A large carryover — but not a uniform backlog
21 substantive bills remained before Parliament
- 6 Early
- 8 Committee
- 7 Advanced
- 0 Near-resolution
At the fixed anniversary cutoff, 21 substantive bills remained before Parliament. They represented different amounts of parliamentary work already completed, rather than a uniform backlog. Six were in the Early category, eight in Committee, seven Advanced and none Near-resolution.
Early means second reading had not been completed in the originating chamber. Committee includes bills that had completed second reading but not third reading there, including measures already reported from committee. Advanced means third reading in the originating chamber was complete, whether or not the bill had formally entered the second chamber. Near-resolution identifies final stages in the second chamber or message consideration.
These categories record the furthest formal stage completed, not the probability or date of enactment. Bill age also matters: a recent introduction and a measure debated for months can both remain unfinished. Later parliamentary progress does not retroactively change the 26 May classification or the Year One conversion rate.
Pipeline maturity measures parliamentary distance travelled, not parliamentary distance remaining with certainty.
Data and text equivalent
| Stage | Bills | Share of carryover | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early | 6 | 28.6% | Originating chamber: second reading not completed. |
| Committee | 8 | 38.1% | Second reading completed but third reading not completed in the originating chamber, including bills reported from committee but still awaiting completion of report stage or third reading. |
| Advanced | 7 | 33.3% | Originating chamber: third reading completed. |
| Near-resolution | 0 | 0.0% | Final stage in second chamber or message consideration. |
Classification follows the furthest formal stage completed. Parliamentary maturity does not predict enactment.
Sources: [1] Parliament of Canada
Royal Assent is not the end
- Royal Assent
- Entry into force
- Administration
- Delivery
- Outcomes
The eight substantive enactments occupied different implementation positions at the cutoff. Royal Assent established statutory completion, but did not place every measure at the same operational endpoint. Entry into force, administration, delivery and observable outcomes require distinct evidence.
C-3 was in force and its citizenship framework was being administered. C-5 had moved into regulatory and institutional implementation. C-15 was a mixed portfolio, with measures following different commencement and administrative timelines. Its enactment therefore could not supply a single implementation date for everything it contained.
C-19’s administrative delivery arrangements were prepared, while its principal special payment was scheduled after 26 May. C-13 and C-18 had completed domestic implementation legislation, but additional international steps remained. These positions are descriptions, not implementation scores. Nor is the conceptual chain always strictly chronological: preparation may precede assent, and an omnibus Act may contain several timelines. Policy effects remain a separate question from legal authority or administrative activity.
27.6% is a statutory conversion rate. It is not a policy-completion rate.
Data and text equivalent
| Bill | Status at the cutoff | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| C-3 | in force; administrative application underway | [2] |
| C-4 | statutory completion; active tax administration | [3] |
| C-5 | in force; regulations and institutional implementation underway | [4] [5] |
| C-12 | statutory completion; relevant legal and administrative implementation underway | [6] |
| C-15 | mixed implementation portfolio; measure-specific timelines | [7] |
| C-19 | administrative delivery prepared; principal special payment scheduled after cutoff | [8] |
| C-13 | domestic implementation legislation enacted; international entry into force pending | [9] |
| C-18 | domestic implementation legislation enacted; international entry into force pending | [10] |
Each description is bill-specific. This display assigns no implementation score or ranking.
Royal Assent establishes statutory completion; it does not establish policy completion or observable outcomes.
Sources: [1] Parliament of Canada, [2] Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, [3] Department of Finance Canada, [4] Canada Gazette, [5] Prime Minister of Canada, [6] Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, [7] Parliament of Canada, [8] Canada Revenue Agency, [9] Global Affairs Canada, [10] Governor General in Council / Privy Council Office
What the first year shows
- Broad agenda
- Concentrated statutory completion
- Selective acceleration
- Different parliamentary pathways
- Legislative + executive delivery
- Uneven implementation maturity
- Multi-layer Year Two carryover
The first year shows why a parliamentary agenda cannot be evaluated through a single count. The 35 Government Bills describe the volume entering Parliament. The 29 substantive measures identify the policy-legislation universe after appropriation and pro forma exclusions. Eight substantive enactments establish a narrower threshold: the measures that became law within the fixed anniversary window. Each number answers a different question.
The governing pattern becomes clearer when those measures are connected without being collapsed. A broad agenda produced concentrated statutory completion. Selected priorities advanced quickly, but enacted bills followed markedly different timelines and parliamentary routes. The House moved from a minority to a late-period majority configuration, while votes continued to reflect policy-dependent alignments and procedures. Neither uniform cooperation nor uniform obstruction describes that record.
The same distinction applies beyond Parliament. Executive institutions, administrative action and multi-year commitments formed part of agenda delivery alongside legislation. Their progress cannot be inferred from the Royal Assent count, just as an announcement cannot automatically be treated as completed delivery. The report’s framework separates the creation of authority from the work of applying it and from the later evidence needed to assess consequences.
Year Two therefore inherited several layers of unfinished business. Some legislation remained in parliamentary consideration. Enacted statutes generated regulatory, institutional and administrative obligations. Longer-term policy targets retained open horizons. Describing that carryover requires attention to maturity and mechanism, rather than treating every unfinished measure as equivalent or assigning a failure label to the entire pipeline.
Subsequent observation can examine whether bills advance, whether statutory powers become sustained administration, whether institutions deliver their intended services and whether measurable outcomes emerge. Those questions belong to later analysis. They do not retrospectively alter the 26 May 2026 snapshot, its classifications or its denominators.
This report does not assign a political performance score to the Carney government. Its purpose is narrower: to reconstruct what moved, how it moved, how far it moved, and what remained to be done at the end of the first twelve months.
Scope, methodology & sources
This web edition is derived from the final 104-page report. The analytical window is 26 May 2025 to 26 May 2026. “Year One” is an anniversary period, not a formal parliamentary session boundary. Later events do not change the snapshot.
The bill is the unit of observation. The substantive denominator excludes appropriation and pro forma bills. Each substantive bill receives one primary policy category. Legislative velocity describes enacted bills; pipeline maturity describes the furthest formal stage completed by carryover bills. Neither is a performance score.
The full report contains the research methodology, the 35-bill master legislative dataset and primary-source endnotes. Figure source notes below retain the report’s distinction between within-window evidence and explicitly identified retrospective corroboration.
Master legislative dataset, pp. 76–97 ↗
Figure source notes
- Parliament of Canada. LEGISinfo: 45th Parliament, first session. Dated bill histories through 26 May 2026. Figures 1-4 and statutory completion in Figure 5. Direct records for all 35 bills are listed below. Policy categories and pipeline groupings are the author’s analytical classifications.
- Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Bill C-3: Citizenship Act amendments come into effect. 15 December 2025. C-3: entry into force and active application of the new citizenship rules.
- Department of Finance Canada. Legislation to make life more affordable receives Royal Assent. 12 March 2026. C-4: tax administration and authority for CRA to process rebate claims.
- Canada Gazette. Free Trade and Labour Mobility in Canada Regulations. Part II, vol. 159, no. 24; 19 November 2025. C-5: regulations, Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement and commencement provisions.
- Prime Minister of Canada. Launch of the Major Projects Office. 29 August 2025. C-5: official record of institutional implementation; not evidence of policy outcomes.
- Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. New immigration and asylum measures from Bill C-12 have become law. March 2026; Royal Assent 26 March 2026. C-12: legal and administrative implementation, with different components following different pathways.
- Parliament of Canada. C-15: Budget 2025 Implementation Act, No. 1, as enacted. Royal Assent 26 March 2026. C-15: measure-specific provisions and commencement clauses underpin the mixed-portfolio description.
- Canada Revenue Agency. Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit: top-up coming June 5. 17 April 2026. C-19: payment preparation and schedule announced before the cutoff; the principal special payment was scheduled after it.
- Global Affairs Canada. Canada’s ratification of the United Kingdom’s CPTPP Accession Protocol. 3 July 2026; retrospective corroboration only. C-13: read alongside the 6 May Royal Assent record. This later record corroborates that international entry into force was pending at 26 May; it does not update the snapshot.
- Governor General in Council / Privy Council Office. Order in Council P.C. 2026-0601: Canada-Indonesia CEPA Implementation Act, §45. 12 June 2026; retrospective corroboration only. C-18: read alongside the 6 May Royal Assent record. This post-cutoff commencement order corroborates the pending position; no later status enters the figure.
- Elections Canada. Report on the 45th General Election: delivering the election. General election of 28 April 2025. Election baseline of 169 Liberal seats in a 343-seat House. The election is pre-window context.
- House of Commons. Changes in Membership, 45th Parliament. Use only events on or before 26 May 2026. Affiliation changes, vacancies and by-elections. Later entries on this evolving page are excluded.
- Elections Canada. Voting results: by-elections of 13 April 2026. 13 April 2026 electoral event. Results for Terrebonne, Scarborough Southwest and University-Rosedale. Election results are distinguished from parliamentary confirmation.
- House of Commons. Debates (Hansard), sitting no. 111, 45th Parliament, first session. 27 April 2026; see statement at 19:30. The parliamentary record explicitly refers to 174 members. This is a documented-by date, not an inferred exact notification date.
The complete technical report
104 pages · Version 1.0 · Snapshot: 26 May 2026
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