Ottawa, ON – Today, Conservative members of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, Blake Richards, John Brassard, Eric Duncan and Corey Tochor published a report outlining the Conservative case for parliamentary democracy and calling on the Trudeau government to restore normal Parliamentary sittings.

“There has been a tremendous amount of uncertainty over the past few months.  One thing though is abundantly clear – Justin Trudeau is letting Canadians down,” said MP Richards.

“Justin Trudeau has made it clear that he would like to permanently replace Parliament with press conferences.  He wants an audience, not an Opposition,” said MP Brassard.  “That is absolutely unacceptable.  In a democratic country like Canada, Parliament is an essential service and its role must be fully restored.”

Conservatives have repeatedly demonstrated how oversight and accountability get better results for Canadians.  Members of Parliament need to be able to ask tough questions and hold the Liberals accountable when they make bad decisions.

“Legislatures across the country and Parliaments around the world are planning to resume regular sittings as they ease their respective health restrictions,” said MP Duncan.  “Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are falling through the cracks because of unnecessarily rigid government programs.  They need our help.”

“The Trudeau Liberals are spending hundreds of billions of dollars and are now refusing to provide an economic update,” said MP Tochor.  “Canadian taxpayers deserve to know how the government is spending their money and what the plan is to safely restart our economy.”

Conservatives will strongly resist any effort to exploit the pandemic as a cover to implement a permanent virtual Parliament, with its reduced ability to hold a government accountable, gravely undermining our democracy.