Ottawa: The government’s House Leader Mark Holland says he will move a resolution to increase the sitting orders of the House of Commons when the MPs return to Ottawa next week.
In a tweet on Thursday, Holland said, “Our motion will provide more time for MPs to do their work. It strengthens democracy. If passed, it will remain in effect until June. Parliament works best when we work together, not when one party stands in the way of progress.”
In an interview, Holland said he was trying to schedule the House properly, but was getting indications from conservatives that he wanted to debate each bill for a longer period of time and would only be willing to vote on it.
He said that the government intends to move a motion to ensure Canadians get results from their MPs. Our motion will allow for evening sittings so there is more time to debate legislation. Conservatives say they want more time to debate before voting. This would allow that.
Therefore, he said, he has a solution to extend the time for the debate till midnight.
“The Liberals are accusing us of deliberately delaying house proceedings, while we want to hold the government accountable in every case and we want to tell them their shortcomings in the bills they have introduced, and that’s our job,” Official Opposition House Leader Andrew Scheer said.
He said, “No one can stop us from doing our work and there is no need for us to apologize for it.”
The resolution to be moved on Monday is likely to be passed earlier as the NDP is also in favour of continuing the debate till late in the night.