QUESTION PERIOD — Prime Minister’s Office
Office of the Government Representative
May 2, 2024
Senator Gold, you claim that Government Motion No. 165, a sweeping omnibus motion to change our Senate Rules, was purely your own initiative. This motion aims to destroy the Conservative opposition in the Senate by significantly diluting our powers.
Can you please tell us how many times you, your government deputy leader, your government whip liaison or any of the staff in those three Senate government leadership offices met or had discussions with anyone from the Prime Minister’s Office or the office of Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs, about the content in or planning of the Trudeau government’s Motion No. 165?
I’m not going to answer your question about how many times we met, because the conversations that I have with the Prime Minister’s Office or any other office are not appropriate for —
Order, order.
But I am pleased to clarify, as I have before, the facts that have been misrepresented deliberately in debate.
The initiative to reform the Rules of the Senate originated with our office. We are the Government Representative Office. Once we decided what we thought was appropriate, of course, it was shared with the government. We sought a mandate to proceed, and that took time. We did receive that mandate.
This is a government motion that was initiated by my office and has the support of the Government of Canada. Can I be any clearer than that?
Senator Gold, you’re a member of the Trudeau government’s Cabinet Committee on Operations, which, according to the Prime Minister’s website, provides “. . . day‑to‑day coordination of parliamentary planning . . .” You just told us you have a mandate for this. Please tell us how many times you have attended those cabinet committee meetings during and since the planning and creation of Government Motion No. 165.
First, to correct the record, which I actually corrected in response to an answer to your question, I am a regular attendee, although I am technically not a member. To be a member of a cabinet committee, as honourable senators who have been in government would know, you have to be a member of cabinet, and I am not. But I attend each and every Cabinet Committee on Operations meeting, with the exception of those on Jewish high holidays, since I was named to this position.
So you can do the math. I’ve been at each and every one, save for those on Jewish high holidays.
