Liberals have ‘derailed’ Parliament
Scrutiny of COVID funding to get four hours
OTTAWA • Scrutiny by politicians of the Liberal government’s $150 billion in emergency funding will be limited to just four hours following a deal to suspend Parliament until September — a move branded undemocratic on Thursday.
Canada’s budget watchdog as well as democracy advocates said Justin Trudeau had undermined parliamentary accountability by the suspension and contradicted his 2015 campaign promise for open and honest government.
“There’s been no justification from the very beginning for shutting down Parliament completely,” said Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch.
The Trudeau government on Wednesday passed a motion with the support of the New Democratic Party to suspend Parliament until September 21. Many observers blasted the deal, saying it was an attempt by the Liberal Party to sidestep scrutiny of the emergency spending it has announced in response to COVID-19.
The move also comes after the Liberal government has for months sought to limit sessions in the House of Commons, even as many provincial and foreign governments have continued in-person debates on a limited basis, said Conacher.
And the motion also designates a single four-hour period on June 17 to debate Ottawa’s supplementary estimates, which are likely to include much of the $150 billion in planned program spending.
“What the Liberals have been doing with regards to essentially derailing Parliament goes against everything they promised in the 2015 election campaign about open, honest and accountable government,” Conacher said.
He also placed blame on the NDP for its support of the motion, which passed with a 28-23 vote.
“The New Democratic Party forgot the middle part of their name in rolling over and supporting the Liberals in this undemocratic move,” he said.
The NDP agreed to suspend Parliament apparently in exchange for an increase in the number of sick days afforded to Canadians — an issue that falls under provincial jurisdiction anyway, Bloc Québécois Yves-françois Blanchet argued Wednesday.
Conacher said the justification for shutting down Parliament early in the pandemic was always thin, particularly as health-care officials, grocery store workers and other employees were expected to work within close proximity to others.
The motion passed Tuesday means there cannot be a vote of no confidence against the minority Liberals. A COVID-19 committee will continue to meet into June, but does not enjoy the full powers of Parliament, under which opposition parties can occasionally set the agenda in the House, or provide written questions to government.
Aaron Wudrick, director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said the fourhour limit seems entirely arbitrary and could have easily been extended to a few days to properly assess the spending programs.
“There’s just no reason for them to do it this way, except that they don’t want to be bothered with basic parliamentary accountability,” Wudrick said.
Parliament often spends days reviewing budgets in which spending increases by $20-$30 billion at most, he said, while the current deficit is projected to reach $252 billion in 2021.
MPS should be able to find the time this summer to take part in proceedings on a limited basis, considering the urgent need for oversight during the pandemic, he said.
“If the prime minister has the time to come out every day and do a press conference, it seems they have time for Parliament to sit.”
Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux, whose office has spent the last few months almost solely tracking recent COVID-19 programs, says the four-hour limit is inadequate.
“Four hours for that amount of money is virtually nothing,” he said. “It’s a bit surprising given all the measures the government has been introducing.”
Kevin Page, founding president of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy, said the debate over the $150 billion spending is also likely to come in the absence of a fiscal update from the finance minister, which will further cloud the public’s understanding of Ottawa’s fiscal position.
“These are historical changes to program spending,” Page said, adding that MPS “cannot scrutinize in a proper way” the spending proposals within a fourhour window. Page formerly served as Canada’s first Parliamentary Budget Officer.
Emmett Macfarlane, professor at the University of Waterloo, pointed out that the suspension of Parliament this summer will last far longer than the Harper government’s prorogation of Parliament at the end of 2008, which shut down proceedings for just under two months.