Cabinet ministers' staffers will no longer appear before Commons committees, the prime minister's communications director announced Sunday, in a decision that is likely to set off another row with the opposition.
Dimitri Soudas announced the new "government-wide" policy during an interview on CTV's Question Period.
"Ministers are the ones who are accountable and answer to Parliament," Soudas said.
He said the policy will be fully laid out on Tuesday, when MPs return to Parliament Hill after a week off.
On that day, Soudas is scheduled to appear before the Commons committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, where he is to address the issue of political interference in the system through which documents are released via Access to Information legislation.
Among other issues, the committee has been looking into whether Sebastien Togneri, as an aide to then-Public Works Minister Christian Paradis, directed government workers to "unrelease" a 137-page report on the government's real estate portfolio that had been approved for release to The Canadian Press.
The document was later released with 107 pages blacked out.
Togneri appeared twice before the committee, including with his lawyer at his side.
On another matter, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley surprised committee members Thursday when she appeared in place of her communications director, Ryan Sparrow. Sparrow was to address a report that he had blocked an information request from a reporter at the Globe and Mail.
Opposition MPs are sure to jump on the government's decision in the wake of a hard-fought battle over the release of documents pertaining to the Afghan detainee issue.
Just before the break and following numerous delays, MPs reached an agreement that will allow one MP from each of the four parties to study all documents related to the handover of Afghans detained by Canadian troops in Afghanistan.
Each member of the review panel will have to sign an oath of confidentiality and get appropriate security clearance before they are allowed to see both the redacted and the full, uncensored versions of the documents.
They will then decide as a group which documents can be made public.
Opposition MPs had banded together late last year to order the government to produce all documents, unedited and uncensored.
The government refused, citing national security concerns. Instead, it released thousands of heavily censored documents, which set up the showdown with the opposition.
