Squabbling in Canada’s Parliament is intensifying as opposition political parties refused to give unanimous consent to the Liberal government’s latest COVID-19 emergency response legislation.
The opposition Conservative Party also blocked the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s attempt to split the legislation in two to allow a promised benefit for Canadians with disabilities to proceed as announced.
That benefit — a one-time, tax-free payment of up to $600 for Canadians with disabilities — and other measures in the latest government bill are now unlikely to happen, while the various political parties blame one another for the legislation’s defeat.
Government House leader Pablo Rodriguez said he was disappointed that no opposition parties supported the legislation, which also includes a proposed expansion of the wage subsidy program to include seasonal workers and some additional businesses.
The Liberals government is currently in a minority situation, which means that it needs unanimous consent from all Members of Parliament to allow the legislation to be debated and passed in a matter of hours, as has been done with four previous COVID-19 related pieces of legislation.
But none of the opposition parties was willing to support the latest legislation. The socialist New Democratic Party balked at the prospect of Canadians who fraudulently claim the $2,000-a-month CERB being fined or sent to jail; the Conservatives held out for a full resumption of Parliamentary business.
The Bloc Quebecois demanded three conditions be met before it would support the legislation: a fiscal update this month, a first ministers’ meeting before September on health-care transfers to the provinces, and a ban on political parties accessing the wage subsidy to avoid laying off staff.
What happens to the legislation now is unclear. Parliament is not scheduled to sit again until next Wednesday, when it is supposed to deal with the supplementary estimates — $87 billion in planned government spending, mostly on pandemic-related matters. The bill — or just the disability benefit portion of it — could be added to the agenda but opposition parties have already complained they have too little time to debate the estimates.