But even though the Conservatives also sent another six government bills and three bills from backbench Conservative MPs into House committees for scrutiny and testimony from witnesses, the NDP was insisting on Wednesday it intends to keep the House of Commons sitting for another week to continue pressure on Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) over his biggest crisis since taking office—the ongoing controversy over Senate travel and living expenses and a $90,172 cheque that his former chief of staff Nigel Wright made out to Sen. Mike Duffy to get him off the hook in the expense scandal.
“We have more questions for the government, the Prime Minister has skipped off to Europe, the questions remain; if he chose to answer them then that would change things, but he’s not, he’s been evasive since day one,” NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.) told The Hill Times on Wednesday.
“That is the plan that we have right now, the calendar that we have is the calendar that we’re working off of,” Mr. Cullen said.
As the designated summer recess date of June 21 has neared, an atmosphere of confrontation in the Commons—over the money Mr. Wright gave Sen. Duffy so he could repay $90,172.24 in ineligible expenses he claimed and also over Mr. Van Loan’s (York-Simcoe, Ont.) use of debate time limits to get the government bills passed—has only increased since the Conservatives passed Mr. Van Loan’s midnight-sittings motion on May 22.
Over and above the bills that the government has rushed through the Commons, another 12 government and backbench bills are now awaiting royal assent to become law after having already passed through Parliament—five of them since Mr. Van Loan’s last-minute rush began.
Mr. Van Loan introduced his motion to extend daily sitting hours on May 21, three days after Mr. Wright resigned over the May 15 revelation from the Prime Minister’s Office that he gave Sen. Duff the cheque last February, ensuring Sen. Duffy could repay impugned expenses and allowing him to drop out of questioning from an independent forensic examination while also avoiding condemnation in Senate reports released May 9 from the Deloitte forensic results. The Deloitte accounting firm was also going over expense claims of former Conservative Senator Pam Wallin, former Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau, and former Liberal Senator Mac Harb.
Deloitte, which also audits the Conservative Party of Canada’s annual financial reports to Elections Canada, has not yet concluded the forensic examination of Sen. Wallin’s expenses. Sen. Wallin has reportedly already repaid up to $40,000 in ineligible claims.
To the opposition parties, it seemed the government wanted not only to distract Parliament with its barrage of legislation as the recess neared, but also to pave the way for an early summer break to end the opposition cross-examinations Mr. Harper has faced over the Wright-Duffy affair through every Question Period.
But an aide to Mr. Van Loan, who on Wednesday ran through the government bill-passing accomplishments of the past three weeks, which likely set a record for rapid-fire use of time allocation motions in debate, also listed three other bills the government intends to bring forward next week, beginning with second-reading debate that started Wednesday night on legislation to control designated safe-injection sites for drug users.
Mr. Van Loan told The Hill Times on Thursday that the government has met most of the legislative goals it set out last January.
“Our government has achieved passage of the most important legislative objectives that we set out in January,” Mr. Van Loan told The Hill Times on Thursday.
“Before the House rises for the summer we will continue to make progress on other important pieces of legislation, including the Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act and the Canadian Museum of History Act,” Mr. Van Loan said through an email from his communications director, Fraser Malcolm.
In contrast to the NDP, Liberals were indicating on Wednesday they were ready to end one of the most intense series of Commons sittings since the Conservatives took power in 2006, and also pointed out that, because of the government midnight-sitting strategy and its time allocation tactics, there did not appear to be a lot left to do, particularly since Commons committees are unlikely to start work on the bills they have been assigned in the few days that remain next week.
Other bills are well under way in the Senate, which will continue sittings for at least a week to wrap up after the scheduled June 21 recess of the Commons.
The bills the government passed through the Commons into the Senate include: Bill C-60, a 115-page bill implementing the March budget, containing controversial sections that will give Cabinet control over collective bargaining and hiring at the CBC and other Crown corporations; a bill that originated in the Senate and addresses safe drinking water on First Nation reserves, Bill S-8; a Criminal Code bill on nuclear terrorism; a bill covering a range of income tax amendments, Bill C-48; a crime bill on witness protection, Bill C-51; a housekeeping bill for government appropriations under budget measures, Bill C-64; and a bill to improve ground and air freight services, Bill C-52.
“I don’t see a whole lot of business being left,” Liberal MP Rodger Cuzner (Cape Breton-Canso, N.S.) told The Hill Times. “This will be my thirteenth June (in Parliament) and I know this time of the year things always get a little cranky.
“Whatever is going on, on the Hill, the whole place, it’s like one big frayed nerve,” Mr. Cuzner said.
“It’s been tough getting around with construction on the Hill, it’s tough with a busy schedule getting from one meeting to the next, so waiting for buses, sitting until midnights, plus there’s a lot of anxiety. I think the opposition have asked a great number of fair questions [about Mr. Wright’s payment to Sen. Duffy] without any contrition at all on the part of the government; they come back with some kind of lame counter attack,” Mr. Cuzner said.
“The reality is I think everybody is ready to get out of here, but the NDP just wants to squeeze the last bit of sanctimony out of this orange, and to what benefit it does, I don’t know,” he said.
“You’re not going to get answers out of these guys anyway. How they have responded to date is how they will continue to respond, and that’s not going to change, so I don’t see it being of benefit to anybody, I see a huge waste of taxpayers’ money,” Mr. Cuzner said.
Mr. Cullen referred to difficulties Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Que.) has experienced with mixed messages about whether Sen. Harb will be able to rejoin the Liberal caucus if he settles his dispute over what Conservative Senator Gerald Comeau says is now $231,000 worth of ineligible expenses, and questioned Liberal motives.
“I know the government is desperate, the Liberals seem somewhat desperate to get out of here as well, you can kind of watch QP and understand what that might mean, but we think there’s a lot of work left to be done,” Mr. Cullen said.
In Monday’s issue of The Hill Times, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) described the midnight sittings as “a giant game of chicken; who’s the first to admit they want to go home for the summer, knowing everyone wants to go home for the summer, but no one wants to admit it and the first party to admit it will be beaten up by all the other parties, while they celebrate the fact that they’re going.”
Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski (Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre, Sask.), Parliamentary secretary to the government House leader, said in Monday’s issue of The Hill Times that the government did not force the late-night House sittings out of spite because the opposition parties wouldn’t give unanimous consent to adjourn the House early.
“We can’t just arbitrarily decide to leave early. It takes consent of all parties,” said Mr. Lukiwiski.
Original Article
Source: hilltimes.com
Author: TIM NAUMETZ
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