Liberals, WE make disclosures as chance of confidence vote heats up on the Hill

OTTAWA — The federal government appears to be drawing a line in the sand with the opposition parties’ ongoing attempts to revive the WE Charity controversy, by stating that passage of a Conservative motion to create a new anti-corruption committee would “raise serious questions” about whether the House of Commons still has confidence in the government.While the government has yet to confirm outright if they are viewing this proposal and the vote on it as a matter of confidence, in a letter to his opposition counterparts Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez said that if opposition MPs agree on the need for a new probe, it would have implications for the confidence in the Liberal minority government.“The Conservative proposal is blatantly partisan. It is designed to paralyze the government. If passed, the proposal will raise serious questions about whether the House of Commons continues to have confidence in the government,” Rodriguez wrote. Rodriguez later told reporters that the motion is “clearly” an indication that the Conservatives have no confidence in what the government is doing, and further, would result in government’s focus and time taken away from the ongoing fight against COVID-19 if the demands within the motion are to be met, such as having Prime Minister Justin Trudeau testify.
“We think that it’s extremely irresponsible on behalf of the Conservatives,” he said, but when asked outright if the Liberals would be willing to trigger an election, his response was “we’ll see.”
Rodriguez is hopeful that ongoing talks with the Bloc Quebecois and NDP will result in common ground being found. “Maybe we can agree on something.”
Conservative House Leader Gerard Deltell is calling this claim “simply ridiculous.” “That you are even entertaining such speculation demonstrates to me—as it would to all Canadians—the desperate ends to which the Liberal government will go to further its coverup of a very troubling scandal which reeks of corruption,” Deltell continued in a rebuttal letter send Monday afternoon.
“Your government must acknowledge that it no longer enjoys a majority in the House of Commons and that it will, accordingly, begin to accept the legitimate and necessary exercise of parliamentary scrutiny without resorting to election threats, obfuscation and misdirection whenever you face the prospect of not getting your own way,” Deltell said.
Meanwhile, in new disclosures both the Liberals and WE Charity are looking to satisfy opposition demands for more documentation in relation to the now months-long controversy surrounding a cancelled student summer grant program.
Source: ctvnews.ca