The minority Liberal government is not considering proroguing Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday, despite persisting uncertainty over who is willing to keep propping them up and procedural wrangling over a Conservative led-privilege debate.
Asked about the chatter and if the prime minister was mulling ending this session of Parliament and resetting with a throne speech, Freeland said "no."
Work in the House of Commons has stalled now for eight straight sitting days, as MPs are seized with a priority discussion about their work being impeded by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government not turning over documents related to misspending by a now-defunct green technology fund.
In late September, House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus ruled the Liberals did not fully comply with a House order seeking materials related to a Sustainable Development Technology Canada program the Conservatives are calling a "green slush fund."
This opened up the ability for the Official Opposition to demand the Liberals hand over unredacted copies to the RCMP and advance a priority motion to – as the House Speaker suggested given the extraordinary circumstances – have the issue studied at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee.
Deliberations on the proposal take precedence over most other House business and have essentially seized the Commons since. As a result, the government hasn't been able to debate, let alone pass, key government legislation.
As of late Tuesday, there were no signs of the debate collapsing to allow the matter to come to a vote.
"We're ready for this matter to move on," Government House Leader Karina Gould said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledged Tuesday to keep the debate going until the Liberals relent.
"We're not just going to let sit $400 million of corruption be swept under the rug so Justin Trudeau can get on with his day," he told reporters in the House foyer.
The Liberals have taken the stance that passing this paperwork on to police would set a dangerous precedent and be an abuse of Parliament's power.
Speaking to reporters, Gould said what's going on in the chamber is a "Conservative filibuster of Conservative obstruction."
"They're afraid that if this study goes to committee what they will hear from experts is that this is an egregious abuse of power… And just because the House has the right to do it does not mean that it should," she said.
Despite the logjam, the Liberal government is still trying to put new policy forward. Freeland unveiled new housing measures Tuesday, meant to make it easier to build secondary suites, as well as consultations on taxing vacant land.
But the post-announcement press conference was dominated by the state of the House, as well as questions about the state of talks with the Bloc Quebecois and New Democrats over their support on future confidence votes.
On the latter, Freeland said "constructive and very concrete conversations" are ongoing with both parties. As for the House holdup, she thinks parties will recognize the Conservatives are "wasting precious parliamentary time with dilatory motion."
To end the current impasse, the minority Liberals will need another party to help them force the House to move on to other business. On Tuesday, the NDP didn't seem keen to play that role.
"We believe that Canadians expect members of Parliament to act like adults and get back to work. Liberals can hand over the documents. Conservatives can stop their filibuster of their own motion," NDP House Leader Peter Julian said.
With no indication they'll be assisted in ending the standstill, speculation continues to swirl around another lever the Liberals could pull to end the impasse: prorogation.
It's a parliamentary pause button Steven Harper's minority government pushed back in 2009, amid a similar dispute over disclosing unredacted documents regarding Afghan detainees.
And even with Freeland tamping down the chances of Trudeau taking a page from that playbook and pulling the plug on this session, political observers say the Liberals would be wise to keep the option in their back pocket.
"The atmosphere in the House of Commons is not going to improve. The risks of going into an election are not going to shrink, they're going to grow. And the need for the government to play some different cards, to place a different focus in front of Canadians, to shift course if they wish to avoid a really humbling outcome in the next election, that is really paramount," Â鶹´«Ã½ political commentator Scott Reid said.
"Prorogation offers you time to consider those possibilities, and to make something out of an adjustment."
