Speaker of the House of Commons Greg Fergus has scheduled opposition days for Thursday and Friday of this week and Monday and Tuesday of next week.Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
The minority Liberals will face a spate of Parliamentary tests in the next week as the Conservatives plan three confidence votes on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, which will be followed by the House weighing in on its spending priorities.
The House of Commons has been at a standstill for more than two months, as opposition parties have held up most of the agenda by debating parliamentary privilege over the government’s refusal to release documents connected to a green fund spending and ethics scandal.
On Monday, however, Speaker Greg Fergus ruled that the filibuster must be paused to allow the House to hold its opposition days and vote on the new spending, called supplementary estimates, before returning to the privilege debate and resulting standoff.
Mr. Fergus scheduled opposition days for Thursday and Friday of this week and Monday and Tuesday of next week. Three of those days will go to the Conservatives, who quickly confirmed they will use all three of those days to table non-confidence motions against the government.
The first such motion, which is expected to be debated on Thursday, will amp up the pressure on the NDP. The Conservative motion uses NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s own critiques of the Liberals as the basis for the non-confidence vote.
“The NDP Leader said, ‘The Liberals are too weak, too selfish and too beholden to corporate interests to fight for people,’ ” reads part of the Conservative motion.
“The House agrees with the NDP Leader and the House proclaims it has lost confidence in the Prime Minister and the government.”
Despite that framing, Mr. Singh suggested on Tuesday that the New Democrats will still vote with the government to defeat the motion.
“I’m not going to play Pierre Poilievre’s games,” the NDP leader told reporters, calling out the Conservative leader.
“I’m, frankly, not going to allow him to cut the things that people need. I want to actually have dental care expanded. I want to see more people actually start to benefit from the pharmacare we passed.”
Those arguments are in line with the Liberals' position. House Leader Karina Gould noted that the NDP would have to keep the government alive through the confidence votes if it wants to ensure new spending to be passed as well.
“If the NDP wants there to be more money for dental care we need to pass the confidence votes first,” she said.
She accused the Conservatives of “ridiculous games” to obstruct the work of the House. “We are going to get this work done,” she added.
As long as the Conservative motion remains unchanged, the Bloc Québécois will vote with the official opposition to try to defeat the government, said spokesperson Joanie Riopel. However, that won’t be enough to bring down the government.
On Tuesday, BQ Leader Yves-François Blanchet said the party will decide how to vote on each confidence motion based on whether the Bloc believes it is good for Quebeckers.
Treasury Board president Anita Anand tabled the government’s supplementary estimates in November, outlining $24.8-billion in new spending, of which $21.6-billion requires a vote of approval by the House of Commons.
The House is expected to vote on the spending next Tuesday.
With a report from Bill Curry and The Canadian Press.