National Post (National Edition)
PM backs NDP plan to secure deal
Scheer pushes for full return instead of Trudeau’s approach
OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau backed a national requirement for 10 days paid sick leave Monday to get the NDP’s support for the Liberal plan for Parliament this summer.
“We need a commitment that the government is willing to provide paid sick leave to all Canadians,” NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said at a Monday morning press conference.
Singh said no one should have to choose between going to work sick and not being able to pay the bills, especially during a pandemic, and he wanted a clear commitment from the government.
Trudeau gave that commitment during his daily press conference in front of Rideau Cottage.
“Nobody should have to choose between taking a day off work due to illness or being able to pay their bills,” he said. “The government will continue discussions with the provinces without delay on ensuring that as we enter the recovery phase of the pandemic every worker in Canada who needs it has access to ten days of paid sick leave a year.”
The government will have to get provinces and potentially employers on board to make sick leave a reality, but Trudeau said they were committed to doing that work.
The Liberals proposal for the House of Commons is not the full return to Parliament the Conservatives were looking for. It would add an additional day to the COVID-19 committee that has been running for weeks. It would also adapt that committee to a hybrid format, with some MPs in the chamber and others participating through video conference, with large screens in the House of Commons. That COVID-19 committee would now meet four days a week, up from the three it had been. The other House of Commons committees that have been running would continue to run and meet virtually.
The vote on the government’s proposal is likely to happen Tuesday, but Liberals speaking on background said they believed it would pass through the House of Commons.
The commons’ procedure committee would also be tasked with changing more of Parliament’s rules to allow for things like remote voting.
One of the many complaints about the existing format, is that the COVID-19 committee limits the opposition to questions on that issue. The house would also sit on four days spread out over July and August and on those days all topics could be discussed.
Before COVID-19, the House was scheduled to sit through to the end of June and then recess until September.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer made the case for a full return to Parliament. He said Canada’s Parliament could trace its lineage to the first shoots of democracy in Britain.
He noted Canada and Britain’s parliament had both sat through world wars, previous pandemics and other crises and shouldn’t have to stop now.
“Democracy has unquestionably evolved in the intervening centuries, one of the few constants amidst this change is that the House of Commons always meets in person,” he said. “We believe members of parliament should return to work in this House, in a full parliamentary function.”
Returning to a full Parliament would mean a return of opposition days and the resumption of private member’s bills moving through the House of Commons. Scheer said as long as MPs come to the House in limited numbers, there is no reason that Parliament shouldn’t return.
“Government scrutiny has largely been left to press conferences that the prime minister controls. The prime minister hosts a morning show at his doorstep, followed by a late show often hosted by the deputy prime minister,” he said.
Government House leader Pablo Rodriguez rejected Scheer’s suggestions that accountability was lacking, pointing out hundreds of questions had been asked in the COVID-19 committee. He also said there were more than 74 committee meetings, hearing from 580 witnesses, including 23 ministerial appearances.
“Our committees are working,” said Rodriquez. Rodriguez also pointed out that MPs would have more hours to question the government under this proposal than they do during a regular sitting week.
Scheer said he was disappointed in the Liberals and the NDP for not supporting a return to Parliament. “I have never seen so many members of parliament work so hard during an election campaign to get elected and then work hard to not have to work hard.”