Kady O'Malley Bio

With just days to go before yet another calendar-mandated constituency break sends MPs back to their respective ridings for a little one-on-one (or, alternately, one-on-many) time with the electorate before the budget drop, the government is continuing to work its way down the legislative to-do list. 

On the Commons agenda today: the first round of report stage debate on the 'Northern Jobs and Growth Act', which would set up a new system for project planning and assessment in Nunavut, as well as create a new 'surface rights' board to handle land and water-related disputes with First Nations that hold land claims in the region. 

Should that discussion wrap up midway through the day, the House will return to those proposed technical tax amendments that have been mired at second reading since the post-Christmas return. 

Before that gets underway, however, the House will be tasked with considering Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant's proposal to limit fees for professional services related to the determination of eligibility for disability-tax credits, which will go to a vote on Wednesday. 

Outside the Chamber, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson presents his pitch to tighten up the rules on those deemed not criminally responsible to committee, which will also hear from senior departmental officials, as well as other witnesses still to be determined. 

Over at Ethics, MPs continue their statutory review of the Conflict of Interest Act with testimony from the Government Relations Institute of Canada and Lobbying Commissioner Karen Shepherd. 

Also on the afternoon committee schedule: Canadian Heritage carries on with its inquiry into the state of amateur coaching across the country; International Trade weighs the pros and cons of Canada-India free trade; and National Defence devotes another session to the fine print of the military justice bill. 

Finally, Canadian Citizenship Challenge winners and 'Student Citizens of the Year' Carly Firth and Jason Losier take a guided tour of Parliament Hill and meet with MPs. 

If anyone out there was under the impression that Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition might be ready to drop the still-meaty bone that is the latest existential crisis underway in the Upper House, the trio of motions on notice for tomorrow's supply day will put paid to that theory: 

Follow the latest tweets from Parliament Hill in our liveblog.

You can also keep track of other active liveblogs and tickers via the handy-dandy menu, which gives you instant access to all active and completed events from a single window.

Mobile-friendly auto-updating text feed available here or hit the jump for the full CoveritLive experience.

Treasury Board President Tony Clement will take part in what was initially billed as 'the first ever Google Hangout held by a Canadian federal politician,' but since been amended to the first such event by the Government of Canada, during which he'll take part in an 'expert discussion' on open data.

On the virtual guest list: David Eaves, Big Viking Games CEO Albert Lai, Socrata founder Kevin Merritt, Open Data Ottawa founder Edward Ocampo-Gooding, XMG Studio chair Ray Sharma and Stephen Walker, senior director of the chief information officer branch at Treasury Secretariat.

The virtual chat kicks off at 11am -- tune in via Google+!

Hit the jump for the full post.

In a surprise (well, at least to some of us) ruling, Upper House Speaker Noel Kinsella has sided with Independent Senator Anne Cools, clearing the way for the Senate to order the parliamentary budget officer to drop his legal challenge against the federal government for failing to disclose data. 

Hit the jump for the full story and a statement from the CBC.

As reported last week, 15 lucky MPs, including New Democrat leader Tom Mulcair, are about to be promoted to the private members' business priority list, which is scheduled to undergo one of its semi-regular updates, known within parliamentary circles as 'replenishment,' on Wednesday afternoon. 

Conservative backbencher Brad Trost is preparing to put forward a motion that could strip the governing party -- in this case, his own party -- of the power to control who wields the gavel at committee. 

As debate over his government's approach to employment insurance continues to rage on the Hill, the PM takes a road trip to Riviere-du-Loup, where, alongside Transport Minister Denis Lebel, he'll make "an announcement" and pose for photos at the world headquarters of Premier Tech before heading off to a nearby hotel for an "economic consultation." 

That is, unless the aforementioned EI changes lead to localized protest rallies, which could throw off -- or even supplant entirely -- his planned itinerary. 

Back in Ottawa, New Democrat EI and labour critics Anne-Marie Day and Alexandre Boulerice unveil "tens of thousands of petitions ... slamming the Conservative EI reform" that, as per the advisory, have been "collected throughout Quebec," and will be tabled in the House this morning.  

Meanwhile, the now seemingly perpetually embattled parliamentary budget office will release a new report on the "feasibility" of the government's shipbuilding plans. 

It's worth noting that the PBO event was scheduled weeks ago, yet comes just one day after a hastily organized yet ostensibly unrelated Public Works-hosted background briefing with Senior Government Officials (as the advisory required them to be identified by reporters) on that very same issue. 

Hot off the Official Opposition legislative presses, it's NDP Leader Tom Mulcair's bid to make the Parliamentary Budget Officer a fully independent Officer of Parliament, which should come up for an opening round of debate in April. 

Undaunted, it seems, by the virtually unprecedented level of sceptical public scrutiny currently aimed at the Red Chamber, perennially independent Senator Anne Cools is calling on her colleagues to issue an unprecedented rebuke against Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page by ordering him to cease and desist his ongoing legal action against the federal government. 

New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair will kick off the day with a morning appearance in the House of Commons Foyer, during which he will, according to the advisory, "slam Conservative EI reform" before heading behind closed doors for the regular weekly Wednesday caucus confab. 

The New Democratic Party is hoping to resurrect an all-but-forgotten collective plea from Canada's parliamentary watchdogs to examine the "independence and accountability" of their respective offices -- including, but not limited to the appointment process.  

Later today, the government operations public accounts committee will consider the following motion, which was submitted last Thursday by NDP MP Malcolm Allen: 

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the Committee study and hold public hearings as soon as possible, and no later than June 1, 2013, on a letter dated September 12, 2011 addressed to the Chair of the Committee from the Officers of Parliament regarding their independence and accountability; and that the proposed study would focus solely on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, pursuant to the mandate of the Committee.

Some background: The above-referenced letter was dispatched to all three House oversight committees -- Government Operations, Ethics and Public Accounts -- with each chair charged with considering embarking on the proposed investigation under the parameters of his or her committee's mandate.  

Fast forward a year and a half to now, and it appears no such studies have begun -- and that, it seems, is what has inspired this seemingly out-of-the-blue motion from the NDP, who want to revive the discussion outside the closed-door confines of agenda discussions, where, presumably, the outstanding request has come up at least once or twice. 

Of course, there's no guarantee that today's discussion will take place in public, since all it takes is a non-debatable motion to go in camera to drop the curtain of parliamentary secrecy. 

With the deadline for the next batch of backbencher-driven parliamentary business fast approaching, it appears that two more Conservative MPs -- James Bezan and David Sweet -- will be carrying the party's law-and-order banner through the upcoming private members' business cycle by bringing forward bills to tweak the current corrections regime. 

According to today's Notice Paper, Bezan intends to introduce legislation to "increase parole ineligibility," while his caucus colleague Sweet hopes to increase "fairness for victims."  

Fellow Conservative Phil McColeman, however, has apparently chosen to break the trend; instead of coming up with still more ways to make life just a little bit more unpleasant for involuntary guests of Her Majesty, he plans to put forward a non-binding resolution on the labour market for disabled workers.

Also making it in under the replenishment wire: New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair, whose bid to boost the power of the parliamentary budget officer will be unveiled in the House tomorrow, and NDP MP Francois Pilon, who wants to amend the Old Age Security Act to provide for funeral arrangement. 

The prime minister's former right-hand man has joined the chorus calling for more stringent conflict of interest rules for cabinet ministers, parliamentary secretaries, political staffers and senior civil servants.

During his appearance in front of the ethics committee as an executive member of the Canadian Bar Association, Guy Giorno urged MPs to give the ethics commissioner the power to punish contraventions of the Conflict of Interest Act, noting that, under the current regime, not one of the provisions related to prohibited behaviour -- which cover everything from furthering private interests to attempting to influence another public office holder -- carries a penalty.

As for the abrogation of listed duties, most of which involve failure to disclose information, the maximum fine that can be levied is $500.

According to Giorno, the end result is "unfairness and inequality."

Laws, he pointed out in his opening statement, "are drafted by civil servants and passed by politicians ... [and[ when civil servants draft and politicians place laws on ordinary citizens, those laws include penalties," which are conspicuously absent from this particular law.

Hit the jump for the full post. 

That, in response to the public concern over recent data breaches that have affected more than half a million Canadians, the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics conduct a study relating to mandatory reporting to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of incidents of data loss or breach as well as providing the Commissioner with appropriate order-making powers, and that the Committee report its findings and any resulting recommendations for modification to the Privacy Act to Parliament.

It's worth noting that Borg has also given notice that she will be bringing forward a private members' motion on the same issue -- specifically, related to the order-making powers accorded to the privacy commissioner under the existing law -- which means that even if this motion goes down to defeat, the House may end up devoting at least a few hours of debate to the pros and cons of her proposal.

As the Peace Tower clock ticks down the hours remaining until the much-anticipated refreshing of the private members' business priority list, it appears that New Democrat leader Tom Mulcair will make it under the rapidly approaching wire after all, with a pitch to 'strengthen' the office of outgoing parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page. 

Under the standing orders, Mulcair has until 6pm today to submit his intention to bring forward the bill, which will subsequently appear on tomorrow's Notice Paper. Although the text hasn't yet been made available, party officials have assured CBC News that it won't overlap with his finance critic Peggy Nash's still-pending bid to make the PBO a full officer of parliament, which could result in it being declared out of order by the Speaker. 

I suspect there may be much more to write about intrepid Sun reporter David Akin's expose of a potential conflict of interest involving Toronto-area New Democrat MP Andrew Cash, his contract to provide music to CBC's Dragons Den, and whether he acted improperly by taking part in committee debates related to CBC's budget -- like how, at the very least, it would seem to present an excellent incentive for MPs to revive the moribund five-year review of their self-imposed code of conduct. 

With just days to go before the much anticipated replenishment of the private members' priority list, New Democrat Leader Tom Mulcair is in danger of missing out on what will almost certainly be his only opportunity to present a bill to the House before the next federal election

New Democrat transport critic Olivia Chow hits a downtown Toronto street corner to unveil her party's latest push for a 'predictable and accountable' infrastructure plan, which will be up for House debate during the NDP's next opposition day, currently slated for Tuesday.