QUESTION PERIOD — The Senate
Sittings of the Senate
June 16, 2020
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate and deals with accountability and the shutting down of Parliament. It concerns the ability of parliamentarians to ask questions and hold the government to account, especially at this critical time.
Senator Gold, our country has faced severe challenges in the past, yet Parliament not only remained functional, but it dealt with serious matters. For example, a special committee report, the often-cited Ross report, dealing with money bills received from the other place, was adopted on May 22, 1918, while the country was still at war. Two days later, An Act to confer the Electoral Franchise upon Women was passed. Today, we have a government actively avoiding the House of Commons, and the Senate chamber has not sat for a month.
Leader, does an open, accountable Parliament have any meaning to your government? Do you believe our role is to provide sober second thought right here? And if you believe this, leader, how could you agree with the decision to suspend the Senate?
Thank you, senator, for the question. The position of this government is, and always has been, of the fundamental importance of both houses of Parliament to the well-being of Canada. This government has attempted during this most extraordinary time to find and strike the right balance between concerns for public health, for parliamentarians, staff and their families, and the importance of maintaining appropriate oversight and accountability, which Canadians deserve.
The government’s position is that it has found that appropriate balance through the measures that have been introduced over the course of the last number of months. Ministers are regularly made available to committees. Question Period takes place here, as it does in the other place. Indeed, to cite one small example, the Minister of Finance appeared before the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, and it was hardly his first time before the Senate since this crisis emerged.
In addition, senator, and respectfully, the decision to suspend on March 13 because of the pandemic was taken with all parties understanding the gravity of the situation and the necessity to take such action. When it proved possible to return, and in anticipation of government legislation — only some of which, it turns out, we are likely to receive this week — I was pleased to agree with His Honour’s decision to recall us to meet again here today.
Of course, we all agreed with His Honour’s decision to recall the Senate; it was the suspension that some didn’t agree with.
