A standoff between the Liberals and opposition parties over a demand for documents has ground government business to a halt in the House of Commons.
Since last Friday, the House has been dominated by a procedural dispute over Parliament’s right to demand government documents. As a result, the Liberals are unable to table new bills, including promised legislation to enact a capital gains tax increase that was first announced in the April budget.
The procedural standoff is tied to a Conservative effort to have the government comply with a motion approved by the House of Commons in June to hand over documents related to Sustainable Development Technology Canada. The green technology fund is being folded into the National Research Council of Canada after the Auditor-General found a series of conflict-of-interest breaches and other problems at the foundation.
“Let’s be very clear, this is the Conservatives trying to muck up Parliament,” Government House Leader Karina Gould told reporters on Parliament Hill Thursday afternoon.
Ms. Gould said the production order went further than normal requests for documents by requiring the records to be handed over to the RCMP.
RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme wrote to Commons Law Clerk Michel Bédard in July expressing strong concern with the House motion.
“There is significant risk that the motion could be interpreted as a circumvention of normal investigative processes and Charter protections,” the commissioner wrote.
The June 10 opposition day motion, which was put forward by Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer, called on the government to hand over a wide range of documents related to SDTC, including briefing notes, e-mails, conflict-of-interest declarations and board meeting minutes.
It also said the Law Clerk should then provide the documents to the RCMP “for its independent determination” of whether to investigate potential criminal offences.
The House approved that motion in a 171 to 150 vote, with opposition MPs outvoting the Liberals.
In a Sept. 26 ruling, Commons Speaker Greg Fergus agreed with the opposition that the government has not complied with the Commons order.
Mr. Fergus said it is unusual and unprecedented for the House to order documents for the purposes of handing them over to a third party.
“The Chair also notes that the intended recipient of the information, the RCMP, has expressed to our law clerk its serious reservations about receiving these documents, at least in their current form,” he said. Rather than immediately insisting on the production of documents, as the Conservatives called for, Mr. Fergus said the issue should be studied by the procedure and House affairs committee.
Mr. Scheer then moved a motion for that to occur, but opposition MPs – primarily Conservative MPs – have prevented that debate from wrapping up and coming to a vote.
In an interview, Mr. Scheer said he views the committee study as a delay tactic and called on the government to release the requested documents.
“The Liberals can end this by complying with that original production order and and yet they refuse. So that tells me that there must be something really bad if they’re going to this extreme length to keep that information hidden,” he said.
NDP House Leader Peter Julian said he supports the idea of sending the issue to committee for further study. He said he does not support the Conservative plan to continue debating the matter in the House until the government hands over the documents.
“We’re hoping cooler heads will prevail,” he said in an interview.
Mr. Julian said the level of dysfunction in Parliament has worsened since Pierre Poilievre became Conservative Party Leader.
“He’s a chaos agent,” he said. “That’s how he sees his role. I don’t think it’s been helpful at all.”
