Inside Politics

Orders of the Day - Wednesday, December 9, 2009

by Kady O'Malley Posted: December 9, 2009 7:28 AM Last Updated: December 9, 2009 9:16 AM
After a months' worth of conflicting accounts from various and sundry civilian and military officials, the Afghanistan committee will finally get to hear from their respective political masters, past and present, later today when a trio of cabinet ministers makes a rare joint appearance. 

On the witness list for this afternoon's meeting: Gordon O'Connor, who was defence minister from 2006 until August 2007 and is now the Government Whip; Peter MacKay, who replaced O'Connor at Defence, and held the foreign affairs portfolio in 2006; and Lawrence Cannon, who took over from MacKay. 

Although committee members will almost certainly seize on the opportunity to grill the trio on the seemingly irresolvable contradictions that have emerged from the testimony of previous witnesses, it's distinctly possible that other matters will come up as well -- such as, for instance, the fact that they still haven't gotten their hands on unexpurgated versions of the Colvin memos and other requested material, despite the fact that the House Law Clerk has confirmed, once again, that parliamentarians have the right to unfettered access to documents, even those cloaked in national security provisions.   

Also on the committee front this afternoon: 

  • The Public Accounts committee questions senior CIDA officials over "aid effectiveness" as part of its review of the latest report on the subject from the Auditor General

  • Health is still dragging public health officials before committee to discuss H1N1 preparedness, despite the fact that the much-dreaded second wave appears to have been far less apocalyptic than projected, and, perhaps more importantly, seems to be pretty much over

  • Natural Resources continues with clause-by-clause review of the ostensibly low-maintenance C-20, which would increase the liability cap for nuclear "incidents" from $75 to $650 million, which is taking considerably longer than expected -- particularly given the fact that the bill has the grudging support of two out of three opposition parties 


Meanwhile, in the Chamber, the HST legislation finally makes it to the parliamentary finish line, at least as far as the House of Commons is concerned, with report stage and third reading scheduled to wrap up by the end of the day. Just to be clear, there is absolutely no suspense over whether or not it will pass -- the gap between yeas and nays at second reading, after all, was over 200 -- but it's still worth watching the vote just to see what the HST Rebel Caucus (of two) will do. 

After the HST vote, the House turns its collective attention to Michael Ignatieff's private members' bill on pay equity -- specifically, implementing the reforms of the Pay Equity Task Force. As a result, Liberal MPs will almost certainly be morally -- and perhaps actually -- obligated to stick around for the full debate, which, mercifully, won't go for much more than an hour. 


Tags: afghanistan committee, blackberry jungle, orders of the day