OTTAWA — Federal political parties appear to be locked in a game of chicken in an increasingly precarious Parliament over a debate that has stalled almost all business in the House of Commons.
The Conservatives have vowed the debate will continue until the Liberals hand over unredacted documents to the RCMP about a green-tech foundation that was found to have misspent government money.
The debate has now stretched into its second week.
"I could sit down right now and everything would be done, if they just gave the documents," Conservative MP Kyle Seeback said in the House of Commons Monday.
"The Liberals could end this entire thing."
The Speaker ruled last week that the Liberals did not comply with an order from the House to hand over the documents related to the green-technology foundation, known as Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
The foundation was abolished after the auditor general found dozens of cases of conflict of interest and several cases of money going to ineligible projects this summer.
But House Speaker Greg Fergus also said the issue is complicated and should be studied at committee, and the government maintains it should not provide documents to police.
The Liberals could put forward a motion to end the debate, but they would need the support of another party to force the House to move onto other business.
Liberal House leader Karina Gould's office says it's up to the Conservatives to end the "filibuster."
The Conservatives are poised to make the documents a possible focus of their next attempt to topple to the House and trigger an election.
On Friday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre gave notice that he plans to put forward another non-confidence motion.
The wording of the latest motion takes aim at the government for the green-tech foundation and the inflated cost of the ArriveCan app, all while Canadians are suffering financially.
"As Liberal insiders are lining their pockets, millions of Canadians are lining up at food banks," the Conservatives said in the motion, which the party could bring forward for a debate the next time it is scheduled to have an opposition day.
The number of opposition days allotted in each sitting is decided at the beginning of a session, but the government decides when they are scheduled.
The Conservatives are set to have another three opposition days before the holiday break in December, but the next date cannot be set while MPs are still in the midst of the privilege debate.
Unlike the last two non-confidence motions put forward by the Conservatives this fall, the Tories have a greater chance of winning support from the Bloc Québécois, putting the government at greater risk of falling.
Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet has said he plans to start negotiations with the other parties this week to bring down the government if the Liberals do not agree to his party's demands. The Bloc wants financial support for a bill to increase old age security payments for seniors under the age of 75, something that would cost an estimated $16 billion over five years.
Jean-Yves Duclos, the government's Quebec lieutenant, showed no signs of acquiescing to that request on Monday as he reiterated concerns with the Bloc's bill.
"It gives affluent pensioners like I will be in a few years more money sometimes than the low-income senior in my riding who has to make ends meet with a pension income of $20,000 per year," Duclos said.
"That's not the right way to focus on vulnerable seniors."
The New Democrats said they have not yet been approached by the Bloc, and they will decide how to vote on a case-by-case basis.
The Liberals maintain that the House of Commons should not provide documents to the RCMP for their investigation into spending at Sustainable Development Technology Canada. They have said police need to go through proper channels for their investigation, otherwise the actions of the House could infringe the right to due process.
The RCMP received redacted versions of the documents the government already provided to the House in August, but have raised doubts about whether they can legally use documents handed over by Parliament as part of an investigation.
"The RCMP will continuously assess information and documents that may give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy, which is important to ensuring that all applicable legal standards are upheld during this review," the police agency said in a statement Friday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 7, 2024.
Laura Osman, The Canadian Press
