Commons foes no longer playing nice

OTTAWA — The non-partisan spirit that has allowed Parliament to swiftly pass emergency legislation during the COVID-19 pandemic evaporated Wednesday, with opposition parties refusing to give unanimous consent to the Trudeau government’s latest bill.

They also rejected the government’s bid to split the bill in two, to allow promised benefits for Canadians with disabilities to go ahead.

Those benefits are now in limbo, along with other measures in the bill.

The bill includes proposed penalties for fraudulently claiming the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

The Liberals needed unanimous consent from all MPs in the House of Commons to allow the bill to be debated and passed Wednesday in a matter of hours, as it has done with four previous pandemic-related bills.

But none of the opposition parties was willing to support the latest bill.

The NDP balked at the prospect of Canadians who fraudulently claim the $2,000-a-month CERB being fined or sent to jail — despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s assurances that the punishment is aimed at those who deliberately defraud the government, not those who make honest mistakes.

The Conservatives held out for a full resumption of House of Commons business.

And the Bloc Quebecois demanded three conditions be met before it would support the bill: a fiscal update this month, a first ministers’ meeting before September on health-care transfers to the provinces, and a ban on political parties accessing the wage subsidy to avoid laying off staff.