It’s that time of year again when MPs will sit until midnight until the House adjourns at the end of June, as the federal government pushes to pass as many bills as it can before the summer legislative break.
On Wednesday, the leader of the Government House, Mark Holland, announced that the House of Commons will work late “every night … from here until the end.”
The House is scheduled to adjourn for a two-month break on June 23.
Due to a motion passed in November that allowed the extension of House session hours by day, MPs have been holding midnight sessions sporadically, but now MPs will be burning the midnight oil for three weeks.
Holland said this is being done to see progress on nine pieces of legislation that the Liberals need to see move forward before MPs finish their work in Ottawa, including passing the Budget Implementation Bill, a handful of bills focused in foreign policy and online news and disability benefit bills.
Holland blamed the Official Opposition Conservatives, whom he accused of “obfuscating”, for having to keep the Chamber running late into the night.
“The frustration I’ve had in having the responsibility of driving the legislative agenda through Parliament is that the Conservatives won’t tell us how many speakers they have, they won’t tell us how much time they want to spend on bills, so we have to try to effectively navigate the legislative session blindfolded,” Holland said.
“The consequence now is that we have a limited amount of time… So we’re sitting here every night until midnight and we’re going to do the work of the nation,” Holland said. “It’s totally fair to have disagreements about the content of what’s in the legislation, but to refuse to participate… that creates an unacceptable situation.”
While Holland suggested that allowing more time for these debates should help the legislation move forward, he did not rule out moving forward with more time allocation measures to ensure these bills pass.
Commenting on Holland’s allegations, his conservative counterpart, Andrew Scheer, shot himself in the back.
“The Liberals are trying to push their high spending, high cost, high inflation, high interest rate, high crime agenda through the House of Commons,” the Conservative House leader said. “So, you’re absolutely right, we’re taking our time to highlight those shortcomings.”
“We will continue to do our job. They sent us here to hold this government accountable, we make no apologies for that,” Scheer said.
EXTENSION? ‘NOT MY IDEA’
Meanwhile, rumors and speculation are afloat on Capitol Hill about the possibility that the federal Liberals could arrogate Parliament in the coming weeks, potentially in an attempt to take some of the political pressure off them over foreign interference, as it did. Trudeau in 2020 amid the US charity affair.
However, the Liberals insisted on Wednesday that the extension is not on their minds, attributing the claims to an opposition-driven turnaround and insisting they remain focused on passing their legislative agenda.
“There are reasons to prorogate Parliament, they have been used in the past. I’m not aware that those conditions exist… We are in the middle of a silly season, with all kinds of silly rumors. And I put it in this category.” said Liberal MP Sean Casey after the Liberal caucus meeting on Wednesday. “It’s never been discussed in the caucus, it’s never been discussed in the halls. I don’t know where it comes from.”
Prorogation is a political tool at the prime minister’s disposal that essentially shuts down the House and Senate without launching a federal election.
Sometimes used as a political reset button, all legislative work on Parliament Hill stops when an extension occurs. That means any pending bill not yet signed into law is struck down, any ongoing committee study halted.
While the work can be reset with support from all parties, that would only happen after the new session starts.
Justice Minister David Lametti said that while the decision on the extension rests with the prime minister, he said it was “not my idea” and that it would be something he would “definitely” oppose “because I have a lot of work to do. “. do.”
“I think we are all looking forward to seeing the legislation passed, getting to the summer break,” said Liberal MP Chris Bittle.
“It’s a rumour,” said government leader Steven MacKinnon.