The House of Commons is expected to adjourn for summer break at the end of Wednesday’s proceedings — two days earlier than scheduled — as negotiations over a public inquiry into foreign interference appear to be reaching a conclusion.
Government House Leader Mark Holland introduced the motion to adjourn the House until Sept. 18 during a floor debate Wednesday evening, with the motion receiving unanimous consent.
Holland said under the motion, the House will be considered to have sat on Thursday and Friday, which were the final scheduled days of the spring session. All parties agreed to the motion before it was introduced, he said.
Once the House rises, MPs and Parliament staffers will begin their summer recess with a number of high-profile issues still looming over the government — the most pressing of which is whether to call a foreign interference inquiry.
Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc is leading what the government called ongoing and productive discussions with the Conservatives, NDP and Bloc Quebecois about how to move forward on a potential inquiry.
Earlier Wednesday, Holland told reporters that he expected news on the question of an inquiry “very, very soon, given the productive nature of those conversations.”
The public inquiry was on the negotiating table as the government sought to get priority bills passed. It also wanted to avoid the possibility of hundreds of votes on Conservative amendments to the government’s main and supplementary estimates, which lay out specific amounts that can be spent on hundreds of government programs.
The government’s usual end-of-session motion agreeing to fast-track some final pieces of legislation through various stages of debate passed Wednesday with unanimous consent.
But it did not, this time, include the date the parties agreed to rise, because unless a public inquiry was announced, not all opposition parties would consent to rising earlier than planned.
It was not immediately clear Wednesday night where those talks stood.
Opposition leaders met last week to try to come to a consensus on what they wanted the government to do.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said this week his party would only put forward names on who they would want to lead a potential inquiry after the government officially calls one.
He also said the government has asked for a meeting with all parties on Thursday.
Bloc Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet said Wednesday morning he hoped an agreement on the inquiry could even be hours away.
Blanchet suggested the inquiry would focus on allegations that the Chinese government had interfered in Canadian democracy, but that it would not be restricted to that subject.
He said he believed that at a minimum, the Bloc and the Liberals would agree on details of the inquiry and that it might also be supported by the NDP and Conservatives.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday he was “not confident about the timing” of an agreement on an inquiry, but said he had seen more openness from the government to calling one.
—With files from the Canadian Press
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