MP Frank Caputo (image credit - CPAC)

By Michael Reeve

FALL SESSION

Kamloops MP Caputo eyeing increasing deficit; prepares private members bill tackling intimate partner violence

Sep 8, 2025 | 4:27 PM

KAMLOOPS — The summer parliamentary break is almost over, with Canada’s 343 members of parliament set to return to the House of Commons next Monday (Sept. 15) for the start of an 11-week session that stretches into mid-December.

After a quick, four-week summer session held shortly after the spring election, the fall sitting will be the first to feature Prime Minister Mark Carney squaring off against Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre. It will also include a private members bill from the Kamloops Thompson Nicola MP.

Frank Caputo is already eyeing the upcoming budget and how large the deficit may now be.

“We are now spending more on interest servicing our debt than we are federally on health care. We are now spending more servicing our debt federally than we are on defense,” Caputo told CFJC News. “And we are projected to have a $90-billion deficit, a deficit that has been delayed because we didn’t see a budget tabled. I’m quite worried about that.”

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Last session, the governing Liberals were quick to deflect many issues to the ongoing challenges south of the border.

“Crime isn’t directly caused south of the border. Housing (shortages aren’t) directly caused south of the border. These are things the government has to be accountable with,” said Caputo. “And we also have to remember that this government ran on the idea that they would get a deal, that there would be free trade across the provinces.”

Caputo won the order paper lottery, placing him first in line to table a private members bill this fall. He says it will be the strongest response to intimate partner violence in the past number of decades. He expects to table the bill by September 20.

“This bill will have an impact on all ends. It will be in the bail end,” said Caputo. “It will be hopefully address risk assessment, when people are a high risk and the red flags are going off. But it will also be on the creation of the offense, and people who have a history of this type of offense, it will impact them. It will be very meaningful. It will actually have some provisions about evidence.”

The Kamloops MP spent much of the summer consulting on possible legislation and feels his bill will garner enough cross-party support to be considered.

“In my view, this is actually a non-partisan bill,” said Caputo. “There are elements of the bill that I have drafted thus far that have been discussed by the NDP premier in B.C., there are elements that have been discussed by police. To me, this is a bipartisan bill that should be a no-brainer.”