Page - 151 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

151Ensuring Executive and Legislative Accountability in a Pandemic entirely behind the scenes before a bill is introduced in the House of Commons. Media reports suggest that the parties have engaged in protracted, sometimes heated, negotiations about the content of some of the bills enacted in response to the pandemic. For example, a March 24 sitting of the House convened to consider Bill C-13 (the COVID-19  Emergency  Response  Act) was adjourned temporarily to allow the parties to continue negotiating the content of the Bill.43 Significant concessions appear to have been secured through these negotiations.44 The most publicized has been the removal of provisions that would have permitted the executive to authorize new expenditures without prior parliamentary approval into 2022.45 But there are others. As I have noted, the bills passed and motions adopted by unanimous consent in recent weeks have empowered parliamen- tary committees to take an active role in monitoring the government’s response to COVID-19.46 In addition, one of the motions “call[s] upon the government to provide regular updates to representatives of opposition parties on its management of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a bi-weekly conference call between the finance critics of recognized parties and the Minister of Finance.”47 Another gives the Auditor General an important role in scrutinizing government expen- ditures related to the pandemic.48 Some of these accountability mea- sures were absent in the first draft of the legislation or motion and were negotiated subsequently.49 In ordinary times, we might expect off-stage bartering to be heavily interest-based or to involve the exchange of support for one initiative for support of another. However, there is reason to believe that this kind of bartering has been attenuated in the context of the 43. Robert Fife & Bill Curry, “Government, Opposition Reach Deal on Emergency Bill to Respond to Coronavirus Economic Fallout”, The  Globe  and  Mail (24 March 2020), online: <www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-liberals- pull-one-controversial-tax-and-spend-measure-from-emergency>; Thomas, “Par- liament under Pressure”, supra note 5; Rachel Emmanuel, “COVID-19 Aid Bill Could Have Passed Quickly if Liberals Dropped Demand for New Powers: CPC Source”, iPolitics (25 March 2020), online: <ipolitics.ca/2020/03/25/covid-19-aid- bill-could-have-passed-quickly-if-liberals-dropped-demand-for-new-powers- cpc-source> [Emmanuel]. 44. Thomas, “Parliament Under Pressure”, supra note 5. 45. Ibid; Emmanuel, supra note 43. 46. Thomas, “Parliament Under Pressure”, ibid; Emmanuel, ibid. 47. Hansard 24 March 2020, supra note 24. 48. House of Commons Debates, 43-1, Vol 149, No 33 (11 April 2020) [Hansard 11 April 2020]. See also Thomas, “Parliament Under Pressure”, supra note 5. 49. Emmanuel, supra note 43; Thomas, “Parliament Under Pressure”, ibid.