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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 45

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 24, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 45 - Mar/24/22
Mr. John Brassard (Barrie—Innisfil, CPC)
  • Mar/24/22 3:15:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, before I get to the Thursday question, today is my youngest son's 18th birthday, and Liane and I would like to wish Mitch a happy birthday. As you know, Mr. Speaker, it has been a heck of a week around here. I would like to ask the usual Thursday question of the new NDP-Liberal government House leader. What will the business of the House be over the next week?
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Context: House Hansard - 45 - Mar/24/22
Mr. John Brassard (Barrie—Innisfil, CPC)
  • Mar/24/22 3:16:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am rising on a point of order. I am rising to add to my point of order of Tuesday afternoon and further to the intervention by the member for La Prairie yesterday concerning the coalition agreement between the Liberal and New Democratic parties. Firstly, a timely ruling is essential and today is the last day of the supply period, which means that a new one starts tomorrow. That means we need to know how the eight opposition days this spring will be distributed. Of course, we have question period every day where ministers now receive eight lob questions from two government parties, instead of the typical three lob questions daily. Then there is the matter of the Liberals' coalition partner being stationed in the opposition lobby behind me right in between the Conservative and Bloc sections. This all needs to be addressed, and I say that respectfully. The Speaker is recovering from surgery and I did hear from him today. It sounds like he is doing well and we are all thankful for that. Some hon. members: Hear, hear! Mr. John Brassard: I know the House is unanimous in wishing him a complete and speedy recovery, but we cannot wait for his return for a ruling, nor would we wish to stress or tax him with these matters. Subsection 43(1) of the Parliament of Canada Act vests you, Mr. Speaker, with full and adequate authority to address this matter. It states: Whenever the House of Commons is informed of the unavoidable absence of the Speaker thereof by the Clerk at the table, the Chairman of Committees, if present, shall take the chair and perform the duties and exercise the authority of Speaker in relation to all the proceedings of the House, as Deputy Speaker Secondly, there is the matter of full disclosure of this agreement. My counterpart from the Bloc Québécois put it bluntly yesterday, saying, “The news releases bore the same titles and were identical.” Was it pure fluke and coincidence that both parties each managed to issue identical-looking press releases at the same time of day? We both know the answer to that, Mr. Speaker. It is obvious that there were a lot of emails, text messages and the like flying around about this agreement to coordinate that much. It would not shock me to hear that there may even be some emails or memos that demonstrate how both sides interpret and understand the terms of their backroom deal. Would you be able to indicate whether it would be helpful for you in approaching your ruling, Mr. Speaker, to know whether there are any signed versions of this agreement or additional side deals? I expect that you would and I expect that to be so. This was a government that claimed to believe in the principle of “open by default”. If ever there was a time to show that it means it, it is when it has entered into a unprecedented power grab arrangement to govern Canada. Transparency and openness used to be watchwords for the NDP. I hope that they still are. Therefore, in the interests of transparency and openness, I am calling upon the government to make full disclosure to the House and to all Canadians by tabling all relevant documents concerning the negotiation of this unprecedented agreement and, in the meantime and in closing, I would ask for unanimous consent to table, in both official languages, copies of the press releases issued Tuesday morning by the Prime Minister's Office and the New Democratic Party, so that you formally have before you, Mr. Speaker, the versions those parties have chosen to let Canadians see.
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