Liberals to table motion Wednesday aimed at giving them control of parliamentary committees

Prime Minister Mark Carney Is making his first move to change the look of the House of Commons since transforming his minority government into a majority last week.

On social media Tuesday, Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon said he would table a motion Wednesday to change the composition of parliamentary committees to give the governing Liberals a majority there as well.

“There is an undeniable, long-standing principle in Parliament: a party that has the majority of seats in the House also has a majority in committees,” MacKinnon wrote on X.

“For that reason, I intend to give notice of a motion that reflects this principle to be considered in the House in the coming days.”

Our government is committed to working hard on an ambitious agenda to build Canada strong. Liberals now comprise a majority of MPs in the House of Commons. Prime Minister Mark Carney and his government are determined to work constructively both in the House and in… pic.twitter.com/Bf6NVYO6aI

— Steven MacKinnon (@stevenmackinnon) April 21, 2026

Committees are important because they are a requisite step for most legislation, but they are also the place where opposition parties have the most procedural levers to delay or amend government legislation.

The motion is expected to be tabled Wednesday and debated in the House of Commons until Monday, at which point MPs will vote on it.

The motion makes good on a commitment by Carney last week by rework House of Commons committee composition where opposition MPs outrank the Liberals by one.

Conservative MPs have since called on Carney to resist making the change , arguing that it “stacks the deck” against opposition parties.

“Never before has the prime minister fundamentally tried to change the nature of the government that he was elected on from the people through these kinds of backroom deals, so we are in unprecedented territory,” Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer told reporters last week.

If the motion passes, which is expected, the Liberals will now outrank opposition MPs by one on all committees.

National Post

• Conservatives call on Carney not to 'stack the deck' by using majority to shut opposition out of committees
• No election, no imminent shuffle, and no more talk of 'cats and dogs' in committee, Carney says

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