The leader of the Bloc Quebecois says his party “might play a role” in helping the Liberals get House of Commons business rolling again — after days of Conservative-led debate on a privilege matter — but that his assistance would come at a cost.
“We have said what we do want in order to have this Parliament get back to work normally, and it is to have the royal recommendation on C-319,” Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said Wednesday, referencing his still-unmet ultimatum to the Liberals that they ensure a pair of Bloc bills get through Parliament by Oct. 29 or risk an election before the new year.
“We are not responsible for the way other parties behave,” Blanchet said ahead of his party’s caucus meeting on Wednesday. “And I believe that both Liberals and Conservatives, whatever they say, are quite happy about the situation, because they seem to gain from the fact that the Parliament is not working.”
“Everybody is trying to keep things the way they are and say the other party is responsible for what’s happening,” he continued. “We are not in that state of mind. We want things to go forward, and we might play a role in what’s coming the next few days.”
Since late September, the House of Commons has been mired in a battle over process, and the production of unredacted documents, which has essentially halted all government business
After House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus ruled the Liberals did not fully comply with a June order seeking materials related to misspending by a now-defunct Sustainable Development Technology Canada fund, the Conservatives advanced a privilege motion pushing for disclosure.
The Conservatives want the Liberals to hand over unredacted documents to the RCMP, arguing that until the Liberals agree to do so, they’re prepared to keep running the clock to prevent the motion at hand from going to a vote.
The motion on the table calls for the extraordinary circumstances of the case to be studied at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee, with requests for key public servants and federal officials to testify. This acrimony stems from a damning auditor general report.
That motion and debate on it, per parliamentary rules, takes precedence over most other agenda items and as a result MPs have spent several days talking about the issue, preventing the government from advancing any debates on their priority legislation.
The Liberals have taken the stance that passing this paperwork on to police would set a dangerous precedent and be an “egregious” abuse of Parliament’s power.
Absent debate collapsing to allow the motion to come to a vote, and end the current impasse, they will need another party to help them force the House to move on to other business.
On Tuesday, the NDP didn’t seem keen to be the party to help the Liberals bring what they’re labelling Conservative delay tactics, to an end.
“We believe that Canadians expect members of Parliament to act like adults and get back to work,” said NDP House Leader Peter Julian. “Liberals can hand over the documents. Conservatives can stop their filibuster of their own motion.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is scheduled to speak with reporters ahead of question period.
Asked ahead of a Liberal caucus meeting Wednesday, Government House Leader Karina Gould offered little intel on how negotiations are going with the Bloc, on either the outstanding ultimatum, or on ways to end the standoff in the Commons.
Later, Gould said that “every day we’re debating privilege we’re not debating important legislation for Canadians.”
Heading into Wednesday’s Conservative caucus meeting, a few Tory MPs said that if the Liberals release the documents, they’d let Parliament get back to work.
Next week is a constituency week, meaning MPs will be taking a break from deliberations in Ottawa to spend time in their ridings.
This is a developing story…