When Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended Parliament for three months in late December, he also froze the progress towards creating a long overdue national housing plan for Canada. Bill C-304, a bill proposed by Vancouver East MP Libby Davies, had been extensively reviewed and amended by a Commons committee and was headed back to the House of Commons for third and final reading when Parliament was prorogued by the Prime Minister. While government-sponsored bills are terminated when Parliament is prorogued, private member’s bills are kicked back to the previous stage – so the bill will go back to committee for review, as if the detailed review over the past two months had not taken place. Since the cancellation of Parliament also led to the suspension of committees, the new committees likely won’t be operational until mid-March – further delaying consideration of the much-needed strategy to create a national housing plan. Housing advocates are concerned that kicking the bill backwards as it was moving so close to final approval will mean that the draft legislation could get lost in the pre-election politicking that will likely consume Parliament on its return in early March.