Liberals table proposal for expanded Commons COVID-19 meetings, summer sittings GlobePolitics
A House of Commons clerk prepares for the COVID-19 committee to meet in the House of Commons Chamber on April 29, 2020.The Liberals have tabled a proposal that would see expanded Parliamentary meetings to discuss the government’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, as well as a handful sittings over the summer.The motion proposes to add an additional day to the weekly meetings of the special COVID-19 committee, which have been acting as a sort of stand-in for the Commons.
Mark Kennedy, a spokesperson for Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez, says if this motion is adopted, it would provide more hours for MPs to question government than they would have if Parliament was sitting normally. The NDP negotiated the terms of the motion with the Liberals and support it going to the House of Commons for debate, according to a senior party source who spoke on background because they were not authorized to speak publicly.But the party has been using these negotiations to also push the Trudeau government to adopt NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s calls for a 10-day paid sick leave for all Canadian workers to ensure all employees who contract COVID-19 will be symptom-free before returning to work.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called Friday for Parliament to be declared an essential service, allowing the House of Commons to resume its normal work schedule of five days a week – albeit with no more than 50 MPs sitting in the chamber at any one time in order to respect public health protocols on physical distancing.
It proposes to add the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans to the list of seven other Commons committees that have been meeting virtually over the last several weeks to discuss COVID-19.
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