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The government will unveil its response as early as Wednesday to the 46 amendments to Bill C-45 that were adopted by the Senate last week.LARS HAGBERG/Getty Images

The federal government will reject some of the Senate’s major amendments to the legislation that will legalize cannabis, including a measure that would have allowed provinces to prohibit the home cultivation of up to four plants of the drug, federal officials said.

In addition, Ottawa is expected to reject a Senate amendment that would have prevented cannabis producers and retailers from using promotional material such as T-shirts and hats.

The government will unveil its response as early as Wednesday to the 46 amendments to Bill C-45 that were adopted by the Senate last week. Federal officials discussed the coming announcement on the condition of anonymity.

By rejecting key Senate amendments, the government is planning to use its majority in the House to send back the legislation – which fulfills a key Liberal election promise – to the unelected chamber for final approval.

There have been a number of political battles between the House and the Senate in recent months, but the one over cannabis stands to be the most closely watched as Ottawa seeks to lift the prohibition on the drug that goes back to 1923.

Members of Parliament are expected to vote on Bill C-45 either on Thursday or early next week. Afterward, senators will have to decide whether they bow to the will of the government, or restore some or all of the amendments that were rejected by MPs.

The government has said that it will open up the legal market for cannabis within two to three months after Bill C-45 is adopted by Parliament and receives royal assent.

On the issue of home cultivation, federal officials said the government wants to restore the right for all adult Canadians to grow their own cannabis, even in the two provinces – Manitoba and Quebec – that want to prevent it.

Speaking in early May, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he viewed home cultivation as a key measure to fight the grasp of organized crime over the cannabis trade in Canada.

“The decision on home cultivation of up to four plants was based on logic and evidence and it’s one that we will continue to establish as part of the federal framework,” he told reporters.

The federal position is expected to stir a constitutional fight between Ottawa and the two provinces that will, in all likelihood, end up in front of the courts. In a joint statement last week, the governments of Manitoba and Quebec called on Ottawa to confirm the discretionary power of the provinces.

“We urge the federal government to hear the Senate’s voice in order to avoid burdening citizens with the costs generated by unnecessary court challenges,” said Manitoba Justice Minister Heather Stefanson and Quebec Minister for Canadian Relations Jean-Marc Fournier.

Speaking to the Senate in April, Mr. Fournier said the rules proposed in Bill C-45 would take “an industrial quantity” of police officers to enforce in millions of residences in Quebec.

“How could we check what happens inside those residences in terms of cannabis production?” he said. “One could imagine that various individuals could organize and create a network of home production.”

The amendment to allow provinces to opt out of home cultivation was adopted unanimously at the Senate committee of social affairs. It was seen in the Senate as a key measure to protect the powers of the provinces to create their own framework for the distribution of legal cannabis.

“This is one of the amendments that senators feel is most important,” said independent Senator André Pratte, who proposed the change.

Federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor refused to lay out the government”s exact response to the Senate amendments on Tuesday, but she did mention that the House would not agree to all of them.

“It is fair to say that there are some amendments that we will not be accepting,” she said.

The amended version of the bill was adopted in the Senate on Thursday in a vote of 56 to 30, largely thanks to the support of independent senators appointed by Mr. Trudeau. The main opposition to the legislation came from the Conservative Party.

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