Karina Gould, leader of the government in the House of Commons, rises during question period on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)
Speaking to reporters before the voting marathon began Thursday evening, Government House Leader Karina Gould criticized Poilievre for his absence.
“Here he is yesterday claiming to Canadians that he’s going to hold this government to account,” she said. “Well, let’s see if he shows up to vote.”
Rules adopted in the wake of the pandemic allow MPs to vote virtually through an app; Poilievre, Trudeau and other MPs did that a number of times on Thursday evening. Poilievre’s spokesperson told CBC the Conservative leader will be participating in every vote.
NDP House Leader Peter Julian also spoke to reporters about Poilievre’s absence.
“The fact that Mr. Poilievre doesn’t even have the courage to be here with the members of Parliament that are here all night shows how artificial his latest blocking tactic is,” Julian said.
The Conservatives maintain they will carry out their obstruction tactics until the Liberals lift the carbon tax from all home-heating energy sources, pass a bill to grant carbon tax relief to some farmers and exempt all First Nations from the carbon levy, as some chiefs have demanded.
Poilievre put forward a motion calling on the government to meet those demands on Thursday but it was defeated.
Senate set to vote on carbon tax bill
The late-night House sitting comes as the Senate is set to have a final vote on a carbon tax carve-out bill that has been a lightning rod for controversy in the upper chamber.
Bill C-234 would remove the carbon tax from most natural gas and propane used on farms — other farm fuels like diesel and gasoline are already exempt under the Liberal tax regime. It’s expected to be put up for a third vote in the Senate on Thursday evening.
The Conservative private members bill was passed in the House — without the support of the governing Liberal Party — without much fanfare. But the bill began to receive more attention after the Liberals announced a three-year carbon tax exemption for heating oil.
Conservatives used the Liberal exemption as a rallying point to call for C-234 to pass.
The ensuing debate in the upper chamber resulted in accusations of bullying and harassment by some senators.
The Senate voted 40-39 to amend the bill to limit the exemption only to propane used for grain drying. If the bill is passed with the amendment, the carbon tax would still apply to heating barns and greenhouses.
Ben Lobb, the MP who brought forward the bill, said Wednesday that he was “disappointed” with the Senate’s change.