OTTAWA — Liberal House leader Steven MacKinnon rejected a call from the Conservatives to leave three key House committees under the control of opposition parties as the Liberals move to take greater control over Parliament.
MacKinnon told reporters Wednesday morning he will move a motion to change the rules governing the House of Commons to ensure the Liberals have the most votes on committees.
That would allow the Liberals to swiftly pass government legislation and exert greater control over the political agenda in Parliament.
“We don’t want to play silly partisan games that wastes the time and the money of taxpayers,” MacKinnon said, adding Prime Minister Mark Carney has an “ambitious” economic agenda.
“We want to work together to achieve big things for the Canadians we all represent.”
Later Wednesday, Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer contended the Liberals are seeking to “stack the decks” on committees so they can make life easier for themselves.
Scheer said his party planned to put forward an amendment to the motion to ensure opposition MPs maintain control over what he called “oversight” committees — which deal with accounting, operations and ethics — so the government cannot easily sweep scandals under the rug.
“The majority on those committees, reflecting the will of the Canadian people at the ballot box, is made up of opposition members,” Scheer told reporters in the House of Commons foyer Wednesday afternoon.
“That allows the opposition to hold the government to account, to investigate spending scandals and corruption allegations and ethical violations.”
But MacKinnon said the government will reject the amendment and insisted there are no tiers for committees, which are “all the same.”
“There is an undeniable, long-standing principle in Parliament that a party which has the majority of seats in the House also has a majority in committees,” MacKinnon said in a written statement to media. “Not some committees. All committees.”
Scheer insisted his party would still be able to stand its ground in Parliament, even with a diminished voice in committees, and would still scrutinize legislation line-by-line.
“We were a strong and effective opposition in 2015 to 2019, the last time the Liberals had a majority,” Scheer said.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet, whose party stands to lose substantial influence in committees, said it’s “quite revealing” that the first big thing the Liberals are pursuing with their new majority is a change to the House rules to serve their “own partisan interests.”
MacKinnon rejected the suggestion the government will flex its majority vote on committees to rush legislation through Parliament. He suggested the tone will not change when it comes to working with other parties.
“The prime minister expects us to work with opposition parties,” he told reporters.
When it has the most seats on committees, the opposition can leverage panel hearings to rewrite bills, force inquiries into scandals and slow down the legislative process.
Carney’s Liberal government was granted a majority earlier this month through a set of byelection wins and floor crossings.
Those MPs have not yet been sworn in, though that could happen within days.
Once the motion to change the committee makeup is introduced in the House, it will kick off days of debate before the Liberals can pass it.
Majority governments traditionally hold a majority of seats on House committees, but the rules of the current House of Commons, called the standing orders, were designed for a minority.
When the Liberals won a minority government in last April’s election, MPs agreed to form committees with four Liberals, four Conservatives and one member from the Bloc Québécois.
This motion would increase Liberal representation on committees. MacKinnon said he decided that was a better option than removing opposition MPs from the table.
MacKinnon is proposing most committees be made up of seven Liberals, four Conservatives and one Bloc member. The Bloc currently holds a deciding vote on committees.
Carney’s Liberals secured their majority on April 13, when they swept three byelections in the Toronto area and the Montreal suburb Terrebonne, giving them 174 seats in the House of Commons.
The byelection results, combined with five opposition MPs who crossed the floor to the Liberals in recent months, vaulted Carney’s party over the threshold for a majority — something it did not achieve in last year’s general election.
The Liberals won 169 seats last April, shy of the 172 needed for a simple majority.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2026.
— With files from Sarah Ritchie and Catherine Morrison
Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press
