OTTAWA — Attempts by the Conservatives to secure a day to debate the government’s fall economic statement didn’t make it off the launchpad Wednesday after their point of order was heckled down by Liberal MPs.
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Immediately following yet another loud and raucous question period, government House leader Karina Gould rose with a point of order — requesting the Speaker set aside time at 4 p.m. on Monday for Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to present the fall economic statement and permit 10 minutes for questions as well as equal time for opposition parties to respond.
The point of order was passed with the required unanimous consent.
With fall economic statement being presented on Monday — the second last day of the fall session of the House of Commons — Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer rose with a point of order of his own, seeking an additional day to debate the statement before the House rises for its Christmas break.
Jeers and shouts of “no” from the Liberal benches started as soon as Scheer got to his feet.
“You have no idea what I’m going to say,” Scheer responded with a smile.
“Trust me, it gets good.”
Scheer was one sentence into his motion before shouts of “no” from the Liberals prompted Speaker Greg Fergus to cut him off.
“I’m hearing a number of nos for the honourable member, so I’m afraid there isn’t unanimous consent,” he said.
The heckling prevented Scheer from reading his second point of order with Fergus attempting to say so over the jeering and cackles from the Liberal benches.
“I just wanted to give the government the opportunity to defend its own economic update, but this one’s different,” Scheer said before being cut off by Fergus.
“I am hearing no, I’m afraid,” Fergus said, ending with an encouragement for parties to negotiate ahead of time to ensure unanimous consent of such points of order.
Question period for the past two days has largely consisted of the Conservatives grilling the government over its long-delayed fall economic statement, urging Freeland to reveal how much of a deficit the government is facing and seeking information on rumours of growing discontent between the Prime Minister’s Office and the finance minister.
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