Canadian House of Commons Speaker and Liberal party member Greg Fergus has scheduled the days for the opposition, potentially leading to another no-confidence vote against the government as early as next week.
Fergus selected Thursday and Friday for the opposition which is called as opposition day. The opposition days are a reserved block of time on certain sessional days. This time is used to consider a motion that has been proposed by a member of an opposition party.
This decision comes after the Conservatives blocked their own motion to bring down the government Monday morning, creating a parliamentary standstill, as reported by CBC News.
The Speaker stepped in after Liberal House Leader Karina Gould failed to end a two-month Conservative filibuster—a tactic where prolonged debate is used to delay or block decisions. The Conservatives are demanding unredacted documents about alleged misspending at a now-defunct green technology fund.
The Conservatives had planned to introduce a no-confidence motion citing New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh‘s criticism of the Liberals, hoping to trigger an election. However, the Conservatives refused the Liberals’ offer to debate the motion. They insist the filibuster will only end if the Liberals provide the requested documents or the NDP votes non-confidence in the government.
The House faces a December 10 deadline to approve billions of dollars in spending. Without this approval, some government departments risk running out of money.
Two previous Conservative non-confidence motions failed in September. The Bloc Québécois now says they will work with other opposition parties to defeat the government after the Liberals rejected their bill to increase old age security payments for seniors under 75. Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet said his party would only vote in favour of non-confidence motions if the party deems that to be in the best interests of Quebec.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has indicated his party will consider each non-confidence vote individually. Singh has said that while his party is ready for an election, it does not want to push for one immediately.
