Commons to wait 4 months

New Democrats joined forces Tuesday with the governing Liberals to waive normal House of Commons proceedings for another four months during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead, they voted in favour of a government motion to continue with an expanded version of the special COVID-19 committee that has acted as a stand-in for the chamber over the past month.

The motion passed by a vote of 28-23 in a skeleton House of Commons, with Liberal, NDP and Green MPs supporting it.

The Conservative and Bloc Quebecois MPs — who had argued for a resumption of normal Commons operations with a reduced number of MPs in the chamber — voted against.

As a result, the special committee will resume sitting Wednesday but in a new hybrid format, with a small number of MPs in the Commons and others participating virtually via two large screens set up on either side of the Speaker's chair.

The committee — which has been meeting twice a week virtually and once a week in person with reduced numbers in the Commons — will now meet four times each week for the next month and four times over the summer.

A previous restriction that prevented MPs from asking questions on issues other than the pandemic will also be lifted.

The Commons has been largely adjourned since mid-March, when the country went into lockdown to curb the spread of the deadly virus that causes COVID-19. It has met only briefly to pass emergency aid legislation and several times to come to agreement on how the chamber should function while the pandemic continues.

The last agreement expired Monday, triggering a brief resumption of "normal" proceedings in the Commons, with only about 50 of the country's 338 MPs actually in the chamber.

Prior to the vote, Conservative and Bloc MPs contended that continuing normal operations in the Commons is necessary for the proper functioning of Canada's democracy.

They argued that the special committee structure does not allow MPs to use all the tools they would normally use in the Commons to hold the government to account, including opposition days, introducing motions, posing written questions and debating and voting on legislation on topics other than the novel coronavirus.

Conservative House leader Candice Bergen called the special committee "feeble" and a "fake Parliament."

However, until the issue of how MPs can vote electronically is resolved, Liberals and New Democrats maintained the special committee is the best way to continue since it allows all 338 MPs to be involved in the proceedings — not just those who are in the chamber.