Ahoy, procedural geeks! Reading between the lines of the Liberal response to Gordon O'Connor

Now, it's true that the word "demand" appears nowhere in Cuzner's missive to his Conservative counterpart, and he's correct -- if perhaps being just a little bit coy -- when he suggests that he just wants to make sure the government is taking all the necessary factors into consideration as it comes up with a tentative Commons workplan for the next few months of House business.

That said, let's take a closer look at the particular items of scheduling business that he refers to his letter -- which, by the way, can be read in its entirety here, should you be desperately in need of a reminder of how very, very busy the Liberals have been over the last three weeks. 

 "In addition to the additional sitting-days," Cuzner notes, the motion "should take into account":

 

• The urgent reconstitution of all committees within the first three sitting days so they will have the time needed to deal properly with the Estimates;
• A guarantee that all Ministers will be fully available whenever requested by the committee to appear on their Estimates;
• The designation of four Supply Days during March as required by the Standing Orders;
• The immediate reconstitution of the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan; and
• The need for an Order to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs to deal with the outstanding Question of Privilege raised before Christmas by the Hon. Irwin Cotler

First, the "urgent need" to get committees back up and running within the first three days in order to "deal properly with the Estimates," and to make sure ministers will be "fully available" to field questions on those Estimates is, in fact, an entirely legitimate point, and one that one hopes that the Government Whip and House Leader were already painfully aware. With March 31 -- the fiscal year end -- fast approaching, Parliament will already be racing the April 1st deadline in its efforts to pass an interim supply bill to ensure that government won't grind to a halt between April 1st and whenever they finally finish up with the Main Estimates. (Note to Former Colleague Coyne: Don't get your hopes up.) 

Three days to have a full slate of committees back in action, and offering ministers on demand after that happens may sound like an onerous task, but it's not like the government has much choice. It does need the money, after all, and while the timeline is tight, it isn't impossible -- provided, of course, that Procedure and House Affairs is able to report back to the House with the all important membership lists -- which, to its credit, it managed to do just two days into the new session last January -- before it takes up the distinctly more contentious questions of those outstanding privilege complaints from Irwin Cotler and Peter Stoffer.

Depending on how the debate unfolds, the committee could be tied up in procedural bickering for months, depending on whether the Conservative contingent pulls out all the stops to prevent the vote from being called. After all, that's precisely what led to that very same committee being rendered inoperable for a good chunk of 2008, when opposition efforts to hold a vote on a motion to investigate the Conservative in-and-out election financing scheme resulted in then-chair Gary Goodyear being forcibly relieved of his duties, and his colleague, Joe Preston, being drafted as his replacement against his will.

Given all that, the reason behind Cuzner's reference to the "need" for a House Order on Cotler's privilege question makes perfect sense. After all, how O'Connor responds could give some hint as to how the government plans to respond when the motion hits the table at committee, which it inevitably will, Order or not. 

As for the 'immediate reconstitution" of the Afghanistan committee, well, the government has already made it clear that it was planning to do so anyway, although that assurance came only after NDP MP Paul Dewar started muttering darkly about how he'd heard rumours that it might not. Then again, considering it took sixteen sitting days to do so last January, perhaps it's wise to include the word "immediate" just to give the government a heads up that the opposition sees this particular bit of House business as just a wee bit more time sensitive this time around.

Finally, as for figuring out the timing of those four Supply Days, that, too, has to be done -- although it's probably worth pointing out that it's going to be a bit of a challenge to fit those four days into an already packed schedule. The budget needs to be debated, after all, as does, at least in theory, the Speech from the Throne, although by the end of the last session, the House had only used up one of the six days alloted for Throne Speech debate. 

 Noteably absent from Cuzner's response is any mention of the other outstanding privilege matter that will greet the Chamber upon its return, the Order to produce unredacted copies of all those Afghan detainee-related documents, which was passed by the House just before MPs adjourned for what would turn out to be a considerably longer break than expected. Orders of the House survive from session to session within the same parliament, so there's no need to start from scratch with a new motion; the opposition parties can, however, bring it up at the first opportunity, which will almost certainly result in a debate over privilege, in which the word "contempt" may come up. 

 Questions of Privilege, of course, take precedence over all other House business -- with the exception of Question Period, of all things -- which is why the Liberal Whip may not have felt any pressing need to bring it up in his correspondence with his Conservative counterpart; it's not up to the government to acquiesce to any such request, but to the House as a whole to decide how to deal with the apparent reluctance to comply with the Order. 

Depending on how much leeway the Speaker gives those with differing views on the subject to air their thoughts, the resulting debate could stretch for days -- and would preempt anything else that the government hoped to put on the agenda, including -- unlikely, but possible -- the tabling of the budget, or at least doing so in the House of Commons. (Then again, can anyone really imagine the Liberals, at least, demonstrating sufficient collective spine to actually force the government to recognize the supremacy of Parliament before allowing the finance minister to deliver his speech?)  

Anyway, with just two and a half weeks before the House is slated to come back, the clock is already ticking, so it will be fascinating to see how O'Connor responds to Cuzner's not-officially-a-counter offer. I'll keep you posted.