Orders of the Day - Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Now that the big bad budget-ish bill is out of the way, how, oh how, will the Commons keep itself busy now? Well, there's always that Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement! (Insert sound of the government house leader gnashing his teeth in frustration at the prospect of having his scrupulously managed House schedule hijacked by gleeful filibustering by the NDP.) That ought to kill off a few hours of debate until the next crucially important piece of legislation makes it back from committee.  

Speaking of committees, it's an in camera-licious day on the Hill, what with all the reports being drafted and upcoming business being discussed, which is not unusual at this point in the session, what with only four weeks remaining until Parliament rises for the holiday break. 

Luckily for certain livebloggers, however, there are still a few meeting in public, starting with the Ethics committee, which plays host to two senior Privy Council officials this morning in an effort to learn more about the ethical standards laid out in the current ministerial guidelines. 

Doesn't that sound, well ... civilized? Sedate? Perhaps ... just a touch on the soporific side? Oh, come on, you know this particular committee better than that, don't you? The opposition parties will be grilling the luckless pair on which minister is ultimately responsible for the enforcement of those ethical standards, and if I've been following the subtext of previous lines of questioning on this topic correctly, the answer they are hoping to elicit is that it is, of course, the prime minister. (Insert awkward silence as PCO officials stare unseeingly at briefing notes and wonder if it's too late to apply to law school. Or, if they already have a law degree, the Cirque de Soleil.) 

Oh, and after that, they may finally get to Dean del Mastro's motion to reopen the sponsorship investigation by chucking the not so much hot as mouldy and eye-sprouting potato back to the Auditor General to see if she can track down the famous missing millions that may or may not have vanished into Liberal riding associations. That is, if there's time, although I can't imagine that the chair would want to suffer through many more meetings dominated by the glowering and griping that has been emanating from the mover of the motion since he first attempted to bring it forward nearly a month or ago. Remember that? He leaked word of it to the media and everything!   

Over at Foreign Affairs, the ethics of the Canadian mining, gas and energy sector are under the microscope -- specifically, corporate accountability for activities undertaken in developing countries. It's a private members' bill -- one of the relatively few to win the lottery and make it through second reading, just like the one to rejig the gun registry that got us all so excited a few weeks back.(No, it's not at committee this week, in case you were wondering.)

 I've been told that the real action will come at the end of today's meeting, when NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar will attempt to get his colleagues to back his motion that would enshrine the constitutional responsibility of the government to protect Canadians abroad, which could, if passed, throw a monkey wrench into the Omar Khadr case currently before the Supreme Court, since it would be directly contradictory to the main argument that the government lawyers representing the Prime Minister et al. put forward during last week's appeal hearing. 

As part of its apparent attempt to become the world's first perpetual anti-motion legislative machine, the Environment committee holds yet another meeting in its seemingly endless re-study of the NDP climate change bill, during which they will hear from representatives of northern First Nations. 

This afternoon, a policy analyst from the Canadian branch of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department drops by Government Operations to share his thoughts on the state of the stimulus package; due to a previously scheduled in camera briefing by committee analysts on the supplementary estimates, he'll only have to undergo an hour of pointed questioning. 

Also on the committee agenda today: 

That's it for the moment. Enjoy your Tuesday, everyone!