Justin Trudeau’s government has survived two confidence votes since the House of Commons returned on Sept. 16, but the Liberals have lost control of the House. Since last Wednesday, the government hasn’t been able to move forward with their legislative agenda as MPs debate two instances of what could be called Liberal corruption.
In fact, the government’s attempt to change the income tax act and implement the capital gains tax changes is currently on hold due to this effective shutdown of government business.
At issue is the government’s refusal to follow a demand by the House of Commons to produce documents on the government’s green slush fund, the one the Auditor General said was pushing money to Liberal insiders. All three opposition parties joined together to demand the government produce the documents asked for and hand them over to the RCMP.
Parliament’s ability to require the government to hand over documents is an ancient privilege of MPs, but the Trudeau Liberals have refused. Some documents were released, others were either withheld or heavily censored.
The opposition parties complained to the Speaker, Liberal MP Greg Fergus, who issued a ruling on Sept. 26.
“The House has clearly ordered the production of certain documents, and that order has clearly not been fully complied with,” Fergus said.
While he urged all parties to collaborate and find a solution, the government made clear it isn’t willing to release more information, and the opposition parties have decided to demand that they do.
In his ruling, while Fergus called for cooperation, he also noted that nothing prevented MPs from demanding the documents and no laws or practices could prevent them from doing so.
The green slush fund, officially called Sustainable Development Technology Canada, was a $1-billion fund set up to help Canadian companies go green. An audit found questionable practices, board members pushing money to companies with connections and 90 funding decisions that violated the organization’s conflict of interest guidelines.
The Trudeau government effectively shut down SDTC and transferred the funding to the National Research Council.
Recommended video
That move hasn’t stopped the opposition parties from finding more problems in the rotting carcass of SDTC. With more revelations at committee, the three opposition parties decided to order the government to hand over all pertinent documents last June.
Given that they still haven’t done so, the opposition moved last week to debate the issue in an effort to force the government’s hand.
The Liberals are making the ridiculous claim that by following this order, which would see all documents handed to the Commons Law Clerk and then transferred to the RCMP, that the Charter rights of all Canadians are being put at risk.
“What’s happening right now is something every single Canadian should be extremely alarmed about,” Liberal House Leader Karina Gould said last week.
That’s an over the top and ridiculous assertion by a government desperately clinging to power.
The Liberals could offer some sort of compromise on the issue, but they won’t. They simply want this issue to go back to committee, where discussion of Liberal insiders benefitting from this massive government fund will be lost.
They simply don’t want the materials handed over or looked at, just as with the Winnipeg Lab issue, they are refusing an order of Parliament.
Oh, and whenever this issue is dealt with, Parliament will then be shut down as they deal with another question of privilege regarding Liberal Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault. He’s facing allegations of misleading the House over his business dealings while in cabinet.
The Trudeau government can’t control the agenda in the House of Commons, partly because they don’t want to tell Canadians the truth about what they’ve been up to.
If you can pass confidence votes brought by the opposition but can’t control the agenda or the House or move legislation, are you really in control of government?
Time to have that election and clear the air.