Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is upping the ante for the Liberals, threatening to move toward an election as early as next week if the government doesn’t back a plan to increase old age security payments.
Most Liberals voted against a Bloc motion on Wednesday calling for the government to give a royal recommendation to a bill that would increase pensions for seniors under age 75 by 10 per cent. The move will cost more than $3 billion a year.
A private member’s bill that costs money requires the government’s support.
The Bloc, NDP and Conservatives all voted for the motion, but it carries only symbolic weight because it is non-binding.
Five Liberal MPs from Atlantic provinces also voted in favour of the motion, according to the vote result on the Commons website: René Arseneault, Serge Cormier, Mike Kelloway, Ken McDonald and Wayne Long. The Atlantic provinces have the highest proportion of residents over the age of 65.
Blanchet initially told the Liberals they had until Oct. 29 to support the bill, or he would begin talks with other parties to topple the government. After the vote Wednesday he said he doesn’t think the Liberals will change course before the end of the month.
“So they have until a few days from now to go on with the royal recommendation, and if they do not, we will start as rapidly as next week to speak with other opposition (parties) to go into an election,” he said.
As Liberal MPs stood in the House to vote against the motion, MPs on the Conservative and NDP benches booed them.
Liberal House leader Karina Gould said earlier in the day that the move was “not appropriate for an opposition day motion.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said his party would vote with the Bloc because it has “long supported the idea of increasing pensions for seniors.”
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The Liberals increased the pension by 10 per cent for seniors over 75 in 2022 and the other opposition parties have backed the Bloc push to expand that to seniors younger than that as well.
Gould said the government sets budgetary policies and wants to ensure it can continue to support seniors.
Health Minister Mark Holland said Wednesday morning that supporting the Bloc motion would set a “terrible precedent” on how to use private member’s bills.
“I don’t think Canadians would want $16 billion private member’s bills just coming in with no contextualization,” he said.
“I would think the Bloc would understand that as well.”
The efforts to topple the government started as soon as the fall sitting began in mid-September.
The Conservatives have already used two of their opposition days to introduce non-confidence motions in the House in the last two weeks. The Liberals survived both with the votes of the Bloc and the NDP.
All three opposition parties would likely have to team up to pass a non-confidence motion but if one were to pass it would bring down the minority government and would likely trigger an immediate election.
The Bloc will not get another opposition day this sitting, and won’t get a chance to introduce a non-confidence motion of their own. The NDP will get one, and the Conservatives will get another three before the House of Commons breaks for Christmas in mid-December.
The number of opposition days allotted in each sitting is decided at the beginning of a session but the government decides when they are scheduled.
Singh wouldn’t say whether his party plans to bring in a non-confidence motion this sitting, nor whether it would support the Bloc in an attempt to bring down the government, saying Wednesday that the NDP will take each vote on a case-by-case basis.
There is another confidence vote on the horizon, on a government ways and means motion to implement changes to the capital gains tax system, which are supported by the NDP and the Bloc but not the Conservatives. That vote was to take place Wednesday but has been delayed by some matters of privilege in the House of Commons.
Debate on matters of privilege have no specific timeline so it was not clear late Wednesday when the ways and means vote would be rescheduled.
The parliamentary dysfunction that has become characteristic of this fall sitting was largely still present Wednesday, and House Speaker Greg Fergus continued urging MPs to tone down their rhetoric in question period.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, when answering a question from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on the carbon tax, bordered on using an expletive, by prolonging the “Shh” sound in the word “shameless.” That prompted a warning from Fergus.
Later during question period, Poilievre kissed his biceps repeatedly as Trudeau was saying his government would continue fighting for Canadians.
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