Opposition parties thwart Liberals’ emergency COVID-19 aid legislation

Canada’s minority Liberal government suffered a legislative setback Wednesday as opposition parties refused to give unanimous consent to speedily pass the latest emergency legislation proposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The emergency sitting of the House of Commons came to an abrupt halt within minutes after the government couldn’t secure the opposition support even as the Liberals proposed to split the legislation in two, to allow promised benefits for Canadians with disabilities to go ahead.

Those benefits are now in limbo, along with other measures in the proposed legislation, titled Bill C-17, An Act respecting additional COVID-19 measures.

• Liberal legislation to tighten rules for pandemic emergency assistance

The bill includes a proposed expansion of the wage subsidy program to include seasonal workers and some additional businesses, as well as proposed penalties for fraudulently claiming the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the federal aid to people who lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It also proposes changes to the CERB in response to concerns that the benefit is discouraging people from returning to low-paying jobs.

Government House leader Pablo Rodriguez said the Liberals will attempt to find other ways to deliver on those promises.

“What I’m asking them is to consider the importance of this bill. The fact that it facilitates payments for kids with disabilities, it expands access to the wage subsidy, for example for seasonal workers. I mean, there are good things in this bill,” Rodriguez said.

The leader of the centre-left New Democratic Party, Jagmeet Singh, who had backed previous Liberal emergency aid legislation, said he cannot support Bill C-17 in its current form.

“If the Liberals wanted to get to work to make the lives of Canadians better, we were ready to work with them so we can deliver for people across the country. But it has become clear that the Liberals are currently unwilling to address the needs of Canadians,” said Singh.

“Families who cannot return to work at the end of the month need to know that they’ll be able to put food on the table. The government must extend the CERB so families can continue to get help for as long as they need it.”

The Conservative Party continued to call for a proper resumption of House of Commons sittings.

“Conservatives of course believe that Parliament should be sitting and had we’ve been sitting normally we could have debated this bill, we could have facilitated the Government House Leaders’ request but of course the government has refused to allow this house to do its work as it normally would,” said outgoing Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.

The leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois Party, Yves-François Blanchet, said the minority Liberals behave as if they won a majority.

“The most poisonous pill of all of that is the government trying stubbornly to act as if there were not 338 people having been elected last October, and doing as if it was a majority government led by some kind of a prince, which is not the case,” Blanchet said. “They are not asking us for negotiations, they are asking us for a rubber stamp.”

Rodriguez said the government will, if necessary, find other ways to deliver on some of the measures that are included in the bill, although that could entail delays.

With files from The Canadian Press and CBC News