Manitoba.

• Author: Signorelli, Andrea
• Position: Legislative Reports

2nd Session of the 42nd Legislature--Spring Sitting

The Second Session of the 42nd Legislature resumed on March 4th, 2020.

The Government introduced nine Bills in the first week of the sitting in order to meet the criteria for obtaining Specified Bill status. These Bills, together with the Bills introduced during the past November sitting, were on track to have guaranteed passage in June, but the cessation of sittings due to the pandemic has moved the deadline dates from June.. As of the March 18 deadline, a total of 29 Specified Bills were introduced in the House.

On March 11, Finance Minister Scott Fielding was scheduled to deliver the 2020/2021 budget for the Province of Manitoba. However, starting immediately after the Prayer, Members of the Official Opposition raised a consecutive series of Matters of Privilege which prevented the House from reaching Orders of the Day. The Government House Leader then announced in the House the Government's decision to schedule the delivery of the Budget in the House for the following day.

In interviews after the House raised for the day, the Leader of the Official Opposition, Wab Kinew, announced to the media that it was their intention to hold up the House for several days. As stated by Mr. Kinew, the goal of his party was to prevent the government from introducing all of its legislative packages prior to the March 18 deadline, thereby rendering those Bills ineligible for guaranteed passage by the end of the Session. In the following four sitting days in the House, Members of the Official Opposition continued to raise Matters of Privilege, which the Speaker took under advisement, with a total of 27 Matters of Privilege raised during the course of five days. This prevented the House from reaching Routine Proceedings and also from reaching Orders of the Day. Not only were no Bills introduced, but due to the House not reaching Orders of the Day, the government was prevented from presenting its budget for a week.

Budget Debate

Prior to the start of the sitting day on March 19, 2020, the Government, the Official Opposition, and the Independent Liberals reached an agreement in order to complete certain business by the end of the day and to suspend the sitting of the House indefinitely, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Early in the sitting day, Government House Leader, Kelvin Goertzen sought and received leave to skip some of the steps of the Budget Procedure to allow Members to speak to the motion immediately after the Minister of Finance concluded his speech. Due to this agreement, Finance Minister, Scott Fielding, was able to present his budget address.

The Budget debate lasted less than 30 minutes. During the debate, the Leader of the Official Opposition, Wab Kinew, moved an amendment to the budget speech motion, followed by a sub-amendment moved by the Member for St. Boniface, Dougald Lamont, during his speech. Both the sub-amendment and the amendment were defeated on division, while the main motion passed on a recorded vote of yeas 31, nays 17.

Interim Supply

At the beginning of the sitting day on March 19, the Government House Leader also obtained leave to consider Interim Supply, and for the House to not see the clock until the Interim Appropriation Act, 2020 had received Royal Assent. The passage of this Bill is required by the end of the fiscal year on March 31 to provide interim funding for operating and capital expenditures effective April 1, until...