OTTAWA - The dysfunctional family that is Parliament these days returns Monday to see whether members can work out their differences or need an extended time out, with the Senate gearing up to be the new source of tension.
Before the MPs and Senators departed a week ago for a short break, a heightened atmosphere of acrimony had descended on their two houses. Commons committees had become paralyzed with filibustering and walkouts, with the government side and the opposition each accusing the other of cheap tricks and obstructionism.
Two important bills are now before the upper chamber for final sanction: the budget implementation bill and the opposition-backed C-288, a motion that seeks to entrench Canada's support of the Kyoto Protocol on climate-change and its targets of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by six per cent over 1990 levels.
Getting that budget bill passed is a priority for the minority Conservative government -- a fact that Liberal Senate Leader Celine Hervieux-Payette planned to use to her advantage as a sort of you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours scenario.
She said she's bound and determined to get that Kyoto bill passed, and will not stand for any obstructionism.
"We'll see how kind they are. They have to put some water in their wine and I think we've got a pretty serious bargaining chip,'' said Hervieux-Payette. "I'm not giving anything if they don't give anything.''
The Kyoto bill will cause damage to the economy, said Government Senate Leader Marjory LeBreton, and tying it to the budget bill is "foolhardy.''
"If the unelected and unaccountable Liberal majority in the Senate takes the unprecedented step of blocking a government budget bill -- which contains many essential measures that in are in the interests of Canadians, such as eco-energy money for the provinces -- they will have proven beyond a doubt that Liberal political entitlement has not abated and they have learned nothing,'' LeBreton said.
Even if senators do pass the Kyoto bill, there is no guarantee the government will allow it to receive royal assent.
In the other chamber, the four parties will sort out which bills will make it before the looming summer break and which will end up languishing on the order paper or dying altogether. Rumours continue unabated around Ottawa that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will prorogue Parliament -- essentially starting afresh with a new session and a new speech from the throne with its serious of policy proposals. His party has been unable to break into the level of popular support it needs to win a majority.
Afghanistan continues to be a potential source of trouble for Harper, and the opposition is expected to go after hints he dropped last week during a trip to the war-torn country that the Canadian mission will not end in 2009.
They are also unlikely to stop railing against the Tories after a news report revealed they distributed a 200-page guide to Conservative committee chairs on how to manipulate and thwart proceedings.
Government House Leader Peter Van Loan rhymed off a long list of government bills he wanted to see passed by the Commons, most of them crime bills or ones dealing with democratic reform. One of them -- a bill lengthening mandatory sentencing for firearms offences -- is expected to get passed in the House on Monday with the NDP's support.
Another, which among other things restricts the use of conditional sentencing in drunk-driving convictions, has been held up in a parliamentary committee since last October.
"I'm particularly concerned with a number of justice ones that are tied up. Our problem is that we're a minority on these committees and it's difficult for us to get them out of there,'' Van Loan said in an interview.
"They've been filibustered and delayed at these committees for hundreds of days by the opposition.''
But a closer look at some of Van Loan's priority bills paints a different picture. For example, one bill which would have some three-time criminals automatically presumed to be dangerous offenders was only dusted off and moved from the government shelf recently. The Commons Justice committee has not studied it yet because of a series of other proposed laws they are examining.
A series of democratic reform bills, such as one curtailing loans to political candidates, were only just introduced in the Commons a week before MPs recessed for the Victoria Day week-long break. And a bill to eliminate the long-gun registry has not been moved past first reading by the government.
The Liberals had proposed the fast-tracking of a series of crime bills in the past, but Van Loan opposed the move by saying that it did not respect parliamentary procedure.
NDP House Leader Libby Davies said the Conservatives "don't seem to know what the heck they're doing.'' She predicted another tense week.
"I feel like this is a sort of political message they're trying to use that this is their core agenda, but they really haven't managed it very well,'' Davies said.
"They just don't seem to get about working in a minority Parliament and how you manage the agenda and have genuine discussions with people ... they let things get out of control from their point of view and then complain about the opposition parties."
