NDP House leader laments ‘agents of chaos’ in precarious Parliament

OTTAWA — NDP House leader Peter Julian said there’s more work his party wants to get done in the House of Commons before the next election, despite how chaotic the first weeks of the fall sitting have been.

But if other parties make that work impossible, it could factor into the NDP’s voting decisions, he said Friday.

In just three weeks, two Conservative non-confidence motions have failed to bring down the Liberal government — but the Opposition promises more to come.

The New Democrats have said they will decide how to vote on those motions on a case-by-case basis based on what they believe is in the best interests of Canadians.

“We think all parliamentarians should be stepping up at this difficult time so that Canadians get the benefit of support from the federal government,” Julian said in an interview.

“Primarily our focus should be on Canadians, and if it becomes apparent that the Liberals and Conservatives are not focused on that, then we’ll take that into consideration when we make our decisions.”

Julian’s constituents have told him they are not interested in an election now, he said, but the party plans to take each decision as it comes.

He accused the Conservatives of being “agents of chaos” in the House of Commons after the government’s legislative agenda ground to a halt this week.

The House has been mired in debate over a matter of privilege that has superseded most other business.

It stems from an order from the House of Commons for the government to produce unredacted documents related to misspent government funds so they can be handed over to the RCMP.

House Speaker Greg Fergus ruled last Thursday that the government “clearly did not fully comply” with the order, which is related to a now-defunct foundation responsible for doling out hundreds of millions of federal dollars for green technology projects.

In his ruling, Fergus said the issue is complicated and should be referred to a committee for study.

Liberal House leader Karina Gould says the demand is an abuse of Parliamentary powers, which should not infringe on the rights of Canadians to due process.

“This is an extremely alarming precedent that they are setting,” she said in an interview Friday.

Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer says the state of affairs was “self-inflicted” by the Liberals, and it will continue until the government hands the documents over to police.

For their part, the RCMP have said they are investigating the foundation, but would not likely be able to use the documents in a criminal case even if the House provided them.

In the meantime, members of Parliament have accomplished very little.

The government has so far rescheduled a vote on changes to the capital gains tax three times, and each time it has been overtaken by debate about the documents.

Those tax changes are already in effect, but if the House were to fall before the legislation was passed, it would make it much simpler for a future government to retract them.

Similarly, long-awaited bills on clean drinking water for First Nations and citizenship rights for Canadians born abroad have not moved forward.

If the opposition parties team up to vote down the government, any bills that have not received royal assent will die on the order paper.

Gould said the Conservatives are “holding up pieces of legislation that matter to Canadians and it will have a direct impact on their lives.”

Scheer said Thursday it appears the government would rather see Parliament “seized up” than comply with the House’s order to hand over the documents.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May agreed the government should hand over the documents, but suggested during the debate that Canadians would be “heartened” to see the parties work together to send the issue to committee “so that we can get on with some bills that need to be passed.”

The NDP’s primary focus this fall has been to see through the passage and royal assent of pharmacare legislation. That bill was a key part of the supply-and-confidence deal with the Liberals, before the NDP ended out the pact last month.

It cleared a major hurdle on Thursday when it passed through a Senate committee without amendments. It’s expected to be up for a third reading vote in the upper chamber next week.

But Julian said there are other things the NDP wants to accomplish, including consumer protection measures to prevent price gouging at the grocery store.

He said the New Democrats plan to proceed as they did during the pandemic to get people more support, but the Liberals will need to show leadership.

“We’ll endeavour to do the same thing to benefit Canadians in the fall. But it is an open question,” he said.

Gould says long privilege debates are not unheard of, and she believes the government will be in a position to get the House working again soon.

“Sometimes they take up a week in the House, sometimes they take up a month in the House, and sometimes they take up a day,” she said.

“I think now it’s kind of up to the other parties to determine how long to go on for, and whether they want to get to work as well.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2024.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press