committee business

Okay, it’s distinctly possible that ITQ is missing some crucial tidbit of information that would make the following make sense, but as it stands, we are officially baffled by the decision by the Fisheries committee to go behind closed doors for a briefing on the latest developments surrounding the European Parliament’s longstanding – and not remotely secret – opposition to the Canadian seal hunt – especially when no such provision was included when the study was originally added to the committee’s to-do list. Regardless of which side one falls on the debate, it’s hard to see how the prospect of “European legislative or regulatory actions” targeting Canada wouldn’t constitute a matter of extreme public interest.

Gosh, I hope I remember how to do this – it’s been so long.

Heard in the House today, mere moments after QP had careened to a close:

According to this week’s Hill Times, the government and opposition parties are going to try to get the rest of the committees up and running before the winter break — which is just three weeks away; tick tick tick, y’all — in order to “deal with” (House Leader Jay Hill’s words, not ours) “some of the economic issues” that are pretty much completely preoccupying parliamentarians at the moment. Liberal Whip Rodger Cuzner suggests that, with the fiscal update and pre-budget consultations, the Finance committee, in particular, may be putting in some long hours over the next few weeks. 

(Click here for ITQ’s borderline obsessive coverage of this ongoing drama.)

As first rumoured right here on ITQ, and reported today by the Globe and Mail, the Conservatives are plunging ahead with their plan to seize control of certain House committees by forcing the Liberals to give up one of the four seats currently held by the official opposition – and by the sounds of it, it’s going to be up to the NDP to make sure that the minority government doesn’t end up with de facto majority power: