Liberals say changes to House committees will put an end to 'silly partisan games'

OTTAWA — Government House Leader Mark MacKinnon said he is pushing for a majority on House committees to put an end to “silly partisan games” by opposition parties while denying the move is a power grab by Liberals.

On Wednesday morning, MacKinnon promised to reporters that the governing Liberals would continue collaborating with opposition parties while also pushing for changes to allow them to better control committees.

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.

MacKinnon said he was following parliamentary convention by tabling a motion in Parliament this week to change House of Commons committee composition to reflect the new Liberal majority.

Currently, opposition MPs outnumber Liberals by one in committees.

“We have an ambitious agenda to build Canada strong, and from the start, we’ve made it very clear we want to work collaboratively with other parties in the house. We do not want to play silly partisan games that wastes the time and the money of taxpayers in this place,” MacKinnon said in reference to opposition parties.

But MacKinnon told reporters that he had not consulted with either the Conservatives, Bloc Québécois or NDP before moving the motion.

He argued that the Conservatives coming out against the government’s suggestion it would amend committee composition last week was all the information the Liberals needed to know that it wasn’t worth negotiating.

“When I last week indicated that we would be proceeding in this manner, and was met with a very public refusal by the Conservatives notably,” MacKinnon said.

Conservatives have accused the Liberals of orchestrating a “power grab” by using their newfound majority to change committee composition. Last week, the party’s House Leader Andrew Scheer said the move “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,” Scheer told reporters last week.

Since the Liberals confirmed their flip from a minority to a majority with three byelection wins last week, they and the Conservatives have accused each other of clogging up committees with filibusters.

The Liberals point to hours of Conservative filibustering in recent months at the Commons Justice committee during debate on Bill C-9, the government’s anti-hate symbol legislation.

The Conservatives have countered that up until recent days, the Liberals were filibustering the Ethics committee to prevent Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne from testifying on potential conflict of ethics questions between himself and Alto, the Crown Corporation where his partner works.

On Wednesday, MacKinnon denied that he thought filibusters were only justified if used by his side.

“This felt like a deeply partisan and vexatious series of attacks on the finance minister that were completely unwarranted,” MacKinnon said.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.