Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer, centre, Conservative Shadow Minister for Ethics and Accountable Government Michael Barrett, left, and Conservative Deputy House Leader Luc Berthold in Ottawa on Thursday.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The Official Opposition Conservatives are denouncing the federal government’s plans to give Liberal MPs control of House of Commons committees now that they have a majority.
The battle over committees – which review legislation and scrutinize government spending – heated up this week after five floor crossings in recent months and a Liberal sweep of three by-elections Monday moved the Liberals from minority to majority status.
That will lead to adjustments to the Commons committees made up of MPs from various parties, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon has said.
On Thursday, Opposition House Leader Andrew Scheer said the committee makeup should be based on general election results in order to reflect votes.
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The Liberals won a minority government in the last federal election on April 28.
“Should Mark Carney bring in any kind of motion to stack the deck, to fundamentally change that, he will be violating decades of parliamentary convention to ensure that the parliamentary process reflects exactly what Canadians voted for at the ballot box,” Mr. Scheer told a news conference on Parliament Hill.
“We are calling on Liberals not to stack the deck, resist temptation to be just like other Liberals where they try to use power to gain more control.”
The House of Commons rules – officially known as the Standing Orders – empower committees “to send for persons, papers and records,” meaning they can order people to appear before them and compel government departments and agencies to hand over specific documents.
Opposition parties have regularly used their combined majority in committees in recent years to force departments to hand over documents such as government contracts or internal e-mails that are then used to question cabinet ministers.
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In an interview on Thursday, responding to Mr. Scheer, Mr. MacKinnon said that the composition of committees in the House of Commons should reflect the makeup of the Commons.
He said there will be proposals in due course to reflect these changes, repeating his commitment from earlier in the week.
“Obviously, we have three new members of Parliament to swear in. We look forward to that.”
Mr. MacKinnon said that it is worth considering how the situation would play out if the Opposition had the upper hand in the new dynamic in the House of Commons.
“They would be making the argument in reverse. So I don’t know that it’s really credible,” he said.
“I don’t know if Mr. Scheer seriously believes that composition of committees should not reflect that of the House of Commons.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney predicted earlier this week that the move to majority government would create a positive shift in the dynamic in House of Commons committees. He said it should lead to more substantive debates and less “showboating” by opposition MPs.
Olivier Duhaime, the House of Commons media-relations director, said that a motion last June established the number of MPs, and breakdown by party, on committees.
Changing the distribution of members on committees would require the adoption of a new motion by the House, he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre delivered a speech Thursday afternoon to the Canadian Club in Toronto, in which he criticized the Prime Minister’s economic plans as overly centralized and bureaucratic.
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“Mr. Carney is and always has been a big-government liberal. He believes in the same top-down, government run economy that concentrates money and power in the hands of a small group of political authorities for the benefit of corporate insiders like him,” he said.
During a later question and answer session with a moderator, Mr. Poilievre was asked what Canadians should expect now that the Liberals have a majority.
“Mr. Carney said it’s time to get serious. I mean, what has he been doing for the last year?” Mr. Poilievre said.
“He’s the only thing standing in his own way,” he said. “Now he doesn’t even have a rhetorical excuse, and it’s going to be time for him to produce. Mr. Carney’s been in power now a year.
“When will groceries be affordable? When will the pipeline be under construction? When will that famous deal with the United States actually happen?”