The Liberals on Saturday unveiled their proposed solution, which would see ‘normal’ House of Commons sittings waived in favour of expanding the special COVID-19 committee
OTTAWA — The battle over the future of Parliament in the age of COVID-19 will resume in earnest Monday when a small group of MPs returns to the floor of the House of Commons to argue about the path forward.
The motion proposes adding an additional day to the committee’s current schedule of one meeting a week in person, with fewer than three dozen MPs actually present, and twice a week virtually. The motion will be the focus of Monday’s debate when approximately 32 MPs are expected to return to the Commons. Because they hold only a minority of seats, the Liberals need the support of at least one of the main opposition parties to pass this motion. That support is expected to come from the New Democrats — pending what NDP House Leader Peter Julian suggested was some type of action from the Liberals on support for disabled Canadians and sick leave for workers who contract COVID-19.
Conservative House Leader Candice Bergen said that while the motion unveiled by the Liberals over the weekend was an improvement over the way the special committee has been allowed to operate for the past month, it still has key limitations. Those limitations were highlighted in a report by a Commons’ committee two weeks ago, including concerns about hacking when it comes to MP votes and procedural questions such as how to handle points of order and privilege.
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