And so next week looks potentially pivotal in various ways for various parties.
And so next week looks potentially pivotal in various ways for various parties.
Bloc Quebecois House Leader Pierre Paquette says the time has come for opposition parties to set a deadline and proceed with a contempt of Parliament motion if the government fails to meet it. NDP justice critic Joe Comartin agrees, however Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale is urging all sides to take a deep breath and concentrate on finalizing the deal.
Update 10:36am. A meeting of all parties has been convened this morning and may even still be happening at this very moment. More to come later. If there is, in fact, more to come.
Update 2:32pm. Not much more, but here are Joe Comartin’s comments after QP today.
Well, we met again this morning, I think you know that. Further progress was made. I want to recognize the government continues to work on it, not as fast as I would like them to do. We’ll be meeting again probably on Monday and we’re, we’re looking forward to having this resolved next week. If it’s not, I know all three opposition parties are going to be very upset.
Mr. Comartin also said he’ll be the NDP representative on the document review committee.
Update. 3:33pm. Here is Dominic LeBlanc’s take on the state of negotiations.
I think we saw again considerable progress today. I mean we’re now down to looking at details of wording. The government is showing a considerable willingness to adjust the language when we make a compelling case as to why a certain phrase or a certain paragraph should be altered. There is basic agreement between the opposition parties around the areas we’d like to see improved. And the government’s committed to coming back again early next week with a further revised draft. In any kind of commercial negotiation, this is quite normal. You keep revising and revising the drafts. Everybody sort of gives a little bit, listens to what the other side says and concludes that well, maybe this is a better way to do it and at the end of the day you come as close as you can to a perfect agreement and everybody signs it. I’m quite confident that’ll happen next week.