OTTAWA -- After months of the House of Commons Finance Committee being stalled over the opposition鈥檚 request for transparency around documents related to the WE Charity student grant controversy, the government is offering to resubmit unredacted versions in an effort to get the committee back to work.
It鈥檚 a compromise that came just minutes before Conservative MP and finance critic Pierre Poilievre came out to call for nearly the same thing.
In August, thousands of documents detailing the creation and implementation of an ultimately cancelled student summer grant program were made public after being requested by the committee, which was studying the controversy that erupted when WE Charity was granted the deal to administer the program.
The documents include memos, proposals, budgets and handwritten notes. However, some of the materials had been redacted by public servants within government, which the opposition has condemned, calling for the Parliamentary Law Clerk to be the one to make the necessary redactions.
After a series of motions, filibustered meetings, refusals to hear from the public service directly, and continued calls for the unredacted versions to be turned over in addition to providing further materials, Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez announced Monday morning that the Liberals would be sending largely unredacted versions of the documents to the law clerk to look at and make his own assessment of what needs to be kept hidden and what the committee members should see.
鈥淔inance committee must move forward,鈥� 鈥淚t is time that the opposition sets partisanship aside and gets back to the important work of combatting the COVID-19 pandemic and protecting Canadians.鈥�
While the government had said the initial redactions were 鈥渓imited鈥� and in respect of 鈥渓egal obligations,鈥� the new versions of the same paperwork provided over the summer will still include redactions for cabinet confidences and 鈥渦nrelated material鈥� according to the government.
Alternatively, the Conservatives, who continue to accuse the government of being engaged in a 鈥渃over up,鈥� are proposing that the government divide up the documents, leaving out any cabinet confidence documents but allowing the law clerk to see what is behind the 鈥渦nrelated鈥� document redactions.
鈥淟et him look at those documents that the government has blacked out, other than the cabinet confidentialities, and report back on whether this is a coverup, or whether the blackouts are legitimately justified,鈥� he said.
One of the biggest drivers of this attempted compromise is that usually it is around this time of year the committee is seized with pre-budget hearings. The committee has yet to begin hearing from what is usually an onslaught of sector stakeholders about their ideas for where the 2021 fiscal year funds should be allocated.
In his press conference, Poilievre criticized the government over its inability to yet present a 2020 budget, despite 2021 now being around the corner. He said the stalling the Liberals have been doing at the committee over the WE documents is to blame for that committee not yet considering the serious economic situation the country is facing.
鈥淚magine you're a small business owner, you turn on television to find out what the finance committee is doing to save your business and you see a Liberal MP giving an extensive speech about the cartoon character Polkaroo in order to run down the clock, so that no one can find out what's behind the black ink on those WE documents,鈥� he said.
In the September throne speech, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would provide a fiscal update before the end of the year, with a budget to follow. As of the last 鈥渇iscal snapshot鈥� Canada was on track to have a $343.2 billion deficit this fiscal year due in large part to the 鈥榳artime鈥� massive economic aid and stimulus spending.
With files from 麻豆影视鈥� Sarah Turnbull
