Parliament to return under hybrid format after contentious debate in House of Commons
CBC
The House of Commons decided in a Thursday evening vote to return under a hybrid format, which will allow MPs to attend debates, committee meetings and cast votes virtually if they choose to do so.
Debate over the plan to return to the model used for the entirety of the COVID-19 pandemic had dominated Parliament since its return this week, as MPs dug in on clearly defined party lines.
The Liberals and NDP supported a return to a hybrid Parliament, while the Conservatives and Bloc Québécois wanted to see all MPs return in-person.
Green MP Mike Morrice and Independent MP Kevin Vuong also voted in favour of the hybrid model. The final tally was 180 in favour and 140 against.
The previous hybrid format ended with the dissolution of Parliament prior to the September federal election. The reinstated version will be in place until at least June 2022.
Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole came out swinging earlier Thursday against Liberal attempts to restore a virtual Parliament, calling a return to the hybrid model that allows MPs to dial into the proceedings from outside Ottawa a cynical attempt by the Liberals to duck accountability and undermine the work of the opposition.
O'Toole said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is using the COVID-19 crisis as cover to ram through a motion that would allow fewer MPs to be physically present in the Commons each day.
With most of the adult population fully vaccinated, O'Toole wanted all 338 MPs on hand to speak and vote in person. The Liberals maintain it would be safer to allow some members to participate remotely while the virus is still circulating.
Liberal House Leader Mark Holland has said he's heard from MPs with compromised immune systems who are uncomfortable with the idea of being in the chamber with Conservative MPs who refuse to get vaccinated.
An unknown number of Conservative MPs have avoided getting a shot by claiming medical exemptions to the Commons rules.
WATCH: O'Toole says vote on hybrid Parliament is about keeping the government 'accountable to Canadians'
Under a hybrid model, MPs who are leery about large gatherings like this can call in from their constituencies, Holland said, and parliamentarians who catch COVID-19 can participate from isolation.
At least one Conservative MP, Richard Lehoux, has contracted COVID-19 in the last week, Holland said, adding that ending the hybrid model would disenfranchise Lehoux and any other MP who has to quarantine.
O'Toole said he's not buying the Liberal explanations.
Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia can all expect between 20 and 40 millimetres of rainfall this weekend.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.