Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
Next week's return of the House of Commons is already shaping up to be heated, as opposition MPs are ready to challenge Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his office's role in a growing controversy over Senate expenses.
Now the government is adding midnight sittings into the mix.
The government will put forward a change to the House of Commons rules next week that would have MPs sit until midnight every day except Fridays until the summer recess, which is currently scheduled for June 21 but could happen earlier. The move is an attempt by the government to rush as much legislation into law as possible before the recess. The Prime Minister is widely expected to prorogue Parliament at some point during the recess in order to return in the fall with a new agenda and Throne Speech.
The House of Commons calendar allows midnight sittings during the last two weeks of a sitting. The motion that will be introduced next week moves that up so that midnight sittings could play out for as long as five weeks.
Normally MPs sit until the early evening, breaking around 7 or 8 p.m.
The House of Commons returns from a one-week recess on Tuesday. Mr. Harper was in New York Thursday where he took audience questions from the Council of Foreign Relations. He did not take questions from the media and has not yet commented on the revelation this week that his chief of staff, Nigel Wright, secretly paid over $90,000 to Conservative Senator Mike Duffy, which allowed the Senator to repay travel and living expenses that were under question.