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The House of Commons spring sitting saw co-operation between the Liberals and Conservatives to pass some key pieces of legislation in the span of a month — a drastic change in tone from where things were left in December.
MPs wrapped up the parliamentary sitting last week with a vote on the Liberals’ major projects legislation. Bill C-5 passed with support from the Conservatives who had also supported a promised income tax cut just a few weeks earlier.
After C-5 was passed, Prime Minister Mark Carney walked over to the Conservative benches and shook hands with a number of their MPs. The bill is now in front of the Senate for consideration.
That co-operative spirit was far from how the House was functioning — or, rather, not functioning — last fall.
Before the winter break, the House had been gridlocked as parties blamed each other for tying Parliament up in a privilege debate since late September.
Almost no legislation was passed, though MPs took breaks from the debate to push through some spending measures and enact a federal sales tax holiday.
Both halves of Bill C-5 passed in the House of Commons before it rose for the summer on Friday, but Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith broke with the party to vote against measures to enable the fast-tracking of major projects. Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman tells Power & Politics why her party supported the legislation, and says ‘no one group has a veto’ to projects despite many Indigenous communities’ objections to the bill and B.C.’s objection to a bitumen pipeline.
It wasn’t clear how the gridlock would end until Parliament was prorogued as Justin Trudeau announced he would be resigning, and an election was called shortly after Carney took office.
On election night — which saw the House largely divided between the Liberals and Conservatives — the parties signalled that they would look to work together.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre signalled on the first day of the spring sitting that his party would take a pragmatic approach.
“The question we always ask is, ‘Is the proposal better than the status quo?’ If it is, then we support it. If it’s not, then we oppose it,” he told reporters.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said his party would have to look at a proposed Liberal bill that aims to fast-track major projects and remove trade barriers before backing it.
But the Conservatives have also said the Liberal measures they’ve supported don’t go far enough. For example, they promised during the campaign a larger tax cut than what the Liberals put forward.
On Friday after supporting C-5, Conservative House Leader Andrew Scheer — who is acting as Official Opposition leader until Poilievre can regain a seat — said the bill didn’t go far enough and called on the government to roll back regulations.
“The Liberals certainly shouldn’t be giving themselves a gold star,” Scheer told reporters on Parliament Hill.
He said C-5 “really just gives [the government] the ability to get around their own barriers.”
There were still conflicts between the Conservatives and Liberals. For example, the Conservatives heavily criticized the governing party for not tabling a spring budget.
But C-5’s time in committee shows how the temperature has been taken down a touch compared to committee meetings in the fall.
A number of ministers appeared at the House transport committee last week. Conservative MP Philip Lawrence kicked off the first round of questions with a joke that the ministers “can smile here.”
And Liberals on the committee voted for some Conservative amendments that were later adopted in the House.
A tale of 2 parties
The rapid adoption of Bill C-5 also spelled out how the other parties can be sidelined if the Liberals and Conservatives are in agreement.
The Liberals were able to form government again largely by picking up seats from the Bloc and a few from the NDP. The Conservatives increased their seat count largely by taking seats away from the Liberals and NDP.
The Bloc Québécois returned to the House with a smaller caucus and the NDP lost official party status. Both opposed the major projects legislation.
The Liberals and Conservatives voted together to force “closure” on the bill, limiting the amount of time it would be debated. The two main parties were also able to quickly shoot down amendments from smaller parties.
The Bloc and NDP could still hold some leverage if they want to co-operate with the Liberals — who are just a few seats shy of a majority — on policies the Conservatives oppose. But the spring sitting saw how the NDP could face some difficulties without recognized status.
New Democrats said they would vote against the Liberals’ throne speech. It’s typically considered a confidence vote, meaning the government would fall if it lost.
That speech passed “on division” without a recorded vote. The NDP would have requested a standing vote, but were unable to because only recognized parties can make such a request.
“New Democrats said we’re going to vote against it,” NDP Interim Leader Don Davies told reporters a few days after the throne speech passed.
“The other parties deprived us of that opportunity.”
The NDP also can no longer sit on committees. This doesn’t entirely prevent their MPs from participating at committee meetings, as NDP MP Leah Gazan did during the C-5 study. But committee members needed to give their unanimous consent for Gazan to ask questions, and the NDP would need to get permission again to keep participating.
The House has risen for the summer and MPs will be back in their ridings until September. As they make their rounds on the barbecue circuit, MPs could very well be hearing from constituents about the tone shift of the spring sitting.
The Liberals have promised to table a budget in October which — because it will be a confidence vote — will be the next big test for how well the new Parliament can function.