| Historical Information |
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| This post is about a previous Session of Parliament. Any legislation here that did not receive Royal Assent has been terminated. |
Not a lot happened last week, the House is still held up over those SDTC documents. We did get a bit of new info when it comes to the letter that was sent to the Speaker that started this whole thing though. Details below!
Matters of Privilege
Letter from the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel
So last week the Speaker presented a copy of the letter he received from the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel on the documents that were to be handed over regarding the SDTC. This would be the letter that lead to the Speaker deciding that the Liberals were, prima facie, in contempt of Parliament. With the House stalled out over this I think it’s worth looking into what the letter said. (Remember that “prima facie” means “at first glance”. So the Speaker is making this decision based entirely on the information in the letter. No investigation has been done, that’s not the Speaker’s job.)
First, we’re going to look at the original Motion that was passed requiring the documents be handed over. This is important for context as to just what the government did for the Speaker to find the government in contempt.
That the House order the government, Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) and the Auditor General of Canada each to deposit with the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, within 30 days of the adoption of this order, the following documents, created or dated since January 1, 2017, which are in its or her possession, custody or control:
- All files, documents, briefing notes, memoranda, e-mails or any other correspondence exchanged among government officials regarding SDTC;
- Contribution and funding agreements to which SDTC is a party;
- Records detailing financial information of companies in which past or present directors or officers of SDTC had ownership, management or other financial interests;
- SDTC conflict of interest declarations;
- Minutes of SDTC’s Board of Directors and Project Review Committee;
- All briefing notes, memoranda, e-mails or any other correspondence exchanged between SDTC directors and SDTC management; and
- In the case of the Auditor General of Canada, any other document, not described in paragraphs (a) to (f), upon which she relied in preparing her Report 6—Sustainable Development Technology Canada, which was laid upon the table on Tuesday, June 4, 2024;
Provided that:
- The Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel shall promptly thereafter notify the Speaker whether each entity produced documents as ordered, and the Speaker, in turn, shall forthwith inform the House of the notice of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel but, if the House stands adjourned, the Speaker shall lay the notice upon the table pursuant to Standing Order 32(1); and
- The Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel shall provide forthwith any documents received by him, pursuant to this order, to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
So, what’s in the letter? First there’s a note that the House’s power to demand documents is not restricted by things like the Access to Information Act or the Privacy Act, which were both cited as reasons for documents being redacted. There’s also a note that the Order did not say anything about redacting or withholding documents.
After that note the letter is pretty much just a list of who submitted documents and what state the documents were in:
Submitted unredacted documents
- Finance Canada
- Library and Archives Canada
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
- Fisheries and Oceans
- Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions
- Women and Gender Equality Canada
- Treasure Board of Canada Secretariat
- Canada Energy Regulator
- Environment and Climate Change Canada
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner
Submitted redacted documents and/or withheld documents under the Access to Information Act or Privacy Act
- Federal Economic Development Agency of Southern Ontario
- Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency
- Global Affairs Canada
- Prairies Economic Development Canada
- Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada
- Canada School of Public Service
- Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency
- Natural Resources Canada
- Public Services and Procurement Canada
- Canada Revenue Agency
- Export Development Canada
- Pacific Economic Development Canada
- Innovation, Science and Economic Development
- Business Development Bank of Canada
- National Research Council Canada
- Standards Council of Canada
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Communication Security Establishment Canada
- Justice Canada
- Privy Council Office
- National Defence
Sent notice they could not provide all documents within the time limit, would do so at a later date
- Finance Canada
- Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
- Pacific Economic Development Canada
- Innovation Science and Economic Development
- National Research Council Canada
- Justice Canada
The letter notes that Pacific Economic Development Canada was able to produce the rest of the documents a few days later. As this letter was sent out back in July a week after the deadline I don’t know if the remainder of the documents from the other departments have been submitted. The SDTC had sent documents related to parts 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the Order and were still working on part 6.
Refused to submit documents
- Auditor General
This is actually the most interesting part of the letter, as the Auditor General lists the reasons behind not producing any documents and it helps give some insight into how the government works and what’s happening right now.
First, the AG called out that the Order is about giving the documents directly to the RCMP. She said that there is a process in place for the RCMP to request documents from her and that bypassing those processes could run against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which she refuses to do. She also pointed out that any time the Office of the Auditor General finds evidence of potential criminal activity they promptly report it to the RCMP, and the audit of SDTC didn’t find any signs of criminal activity. They also spoke with the RCMP on this topic and were told that the RCMP would be submitting the proper requests for documents if they decide they need anything from the Office of the Auditor General.
Next, the Auditor General mentioned that she doesn’t actually own the records that were created during the audit. Everything the Office of the Auditor General created through the audit belongs to the government and the SDTC. Under the Auditor General Act she’s required to follow the security requirements the government applies to records. Until the government decides what records can be submitted and what state of redaction they’re in she can’t provide anything.
Finally the Auditor General said that submitted these documents would threaten her independence and her ability to do her job. As an independent office it’s easier for the OAG to get documents in a timely fashion as anything submitted to them for audits are confidential. There’s no risk of the documents being used for political purposes. If the government can simply demand any documents be made public people will be slower and more reluctant to hand files over to the OAG. On top of that the House Government Leader Michel Bédard has stated he’d be keeping copies of any documents handed over to the RCMP, which means the Auditor General has no control over how these documents may be used in the future.
Author’s Note: The reason I feel it’s important to look at this letter and see just what it says is because this is the letter that lead to the Speaker’s decision to find the Liberals in contempt. Considering how the issue has brought the House to a screeching halt it’s definitely worth knowing exactly what was said. On the surface the fact that several government departments failed to submit documents within the deadline does mean they are in contempt of the Order. But this is why the next step is always to send the matter to committee for investigation. Were these documents eventually submitted? Was there a valid reason for the delays? If so it’s possible the committee will decide that the Liberals actually aren’t in contempt. This is why it’s so important to hold the vote to send the issue to committee and get to the bottom of things and not stall out the House.
Committee Reports
Pre-Budget Report (February 2024) – Standing Committee on Finance (FINA)
So FINA had done a pre-budget report and came back with a hefty list of recommendations. This is extremely long and I don’t know how many people want to dig through it (It’s 359 points long) but you can find the official list here if anyone wanted to look through it.
The House voted to accept the report and it passed with 211 in favour and 117 against.
| Party | For | Against | Paired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | 150 | 0 | 0 |
| Conservative | 0 | 116 | 0 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 32 | 0 | 0 |
| NDP | 24 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Independent | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Dissenting Opinion – Conservatives
A lot of these reports give the other parties a chance to publish a dissenting opinion on its findings. I haven’t really been covering these because as far as I can tell it doesn’t require a government response, but I think I’ll start covering them going forward.
The Conservatives have three recommendations they’d rather see instead of the ones published in the report:
- Get rid of the Carbon Tax
- No new taxes, including currently planned tax increases (such as on alcohol, the Carbon Tax, etc)
- Stop new spending without cuts, every dollar of new spending needs to be matched by a dollar of cuts elsewhere
Supplementary Opinion – Bloc Québécois
The Bloc has a few extra points that were not adopted by FINA that they want to see happen:
- Fix the issues with processing applications for French-speaking international students from Africa. It looks like a few studies have been done that found these applications are rejected at a much higher rate than other ones, and the Bloc is calling this discrimination from the feds.
- Take the necessary policy measures to prevent the Bank of Canada from causing a recession in its attempts to fight inflation
- Submit a plan for balancing the budget
- Substantially increase the GST rebate for new housing
- Increase the Canada Health Transfer from 22% to 35%
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