Poilievre offers two hours on Monday for Freeland to present fall economic statement

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is offering to give up time on an opposition day in the House of Commons to allow Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland to present the government’s fall fiscal update.

Poilievre says he will allow Freeland two hours to present the fall economic statement on Monday — a day allocated for Conservatives to present their own motions in Parliament.

The Conservative leader says he’ll give up that time so the government can tell Canadians whether it kept a promise to cap the federal deficit at $40 billion.

The parliamentary budget officer is projecting the government will exceed its own fiscal guardrail, with a deficit of $46.8 billion for the previous fiscal year.

“Not only will we co-operate to let her introduce that fall update, we will actually give her a Christmas gift: We’ll give her two hours out of our Conservative opposition motion day on Monday for her to stand on her feet and tell us how much she’s lost control of the nation’s finances,” Poilievre told reporters on Wednesday morning.

So far, it doesn’t appear the Liberal government plans to take him up on the offer.

Freeland called the proposal “utterly absurd” ahead of her appearance at the Senate’s national finance committee.

“This proposal from the Conservatives is like an arsonist who set the fire in the first place, saying, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll come with a fire truck for a couple of hours. But tomorrow I’ll be back again with matches,” Freeland told the media.

“And when it comes to the fall economic statement, I will be presenting it soon, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Freeland has not yet announced a date for the fiscal update, telling reporters on Tuesday that the filibuster in Parliament is standing in the way of the government’s work.

The Liberal government has not said whether it will meet its own pledge on the deficit.

The House of Commons has been in gridlock for weeks as opposition parties demand the government hand over unredacted documents related to misspending at a green technology fund to the RCMP.

Government House leader Karina Gould reacted to Poilievre’s offer by calling on the Conservatives to end the debate.

“We should end the filibuster,” Gould said. “It’s enough, right? There’s important work that we need to get done.”

The filibuster will be paused on Thursday because Speaker Greg Fergus has stepped in to ensure the four remaining opposition days happen over the next two weeks: the first are allocated to the Conservatives on Thursday and the NDP on Friday.

The Conservatives will have two more opposition days on Dec. 9 and Dec. 10.

The Tories are expected to introduce another non-confidence motion on Thursday that quotes NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s own criticism of the Liberal government’s handling of labour disputes at the country’s largest rail yards and at the Montreal and B.C. ports.

Singh said Tuesday that he would not support that motion.

The NDP plans to use its opposition day on Friday to push the government to expand affordability policies.

The New Democrat motion calls for Canada to permanently remove the GST on what the party calls essentials. This includes prepared foods at grocery stores, children’s clothes, diapers, home heating, and cellphone and internet bills.

Last month, Singh promised to enact this policy if the NDP forms government after the next election. His party supported the Liberals’ temporary pause in the GST on holiday-themed items including toys, children’s clothes and restaurant meals, even though it did not go as far as he wanted.

The NDP motion also calls for the expansion of what the government calls the Working Canadians Rebate, which the Liberals intend to send to anyone who earned up to $150,000 in employment income in 2023.

The NDP wants the one-time $250 payments to also go to fully retired seniors, people who rely on disability benefits and “others in need.”

To pay for the expansion, Singh calls for an “excess profit tax” on the “largest and most profitable corporations.”

As it stands, the government’s $250 payment plan is expected to cost nearly $4.7 billion.

Freeland said Tuesday that the government clearly doesn’t have support from other parties to pass legislation to enact the rebate payments and is talking to opposition parties about the measure. She did not specify what she may be willing to do.

Both motions are expected to be voted on in the House of Commons on Dec. 9.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 4, 2024.

Nojoud Al Mallees and David Baxter, The Canadian Press