SLOWLY BUT SURELY — The House leaders are at it again. A day after they agreed to whisk a conversion therapy ban bill to the Senate — a tour de force of parliamentary kumbaya after weeks of bitter post-election acrimony — the Commons scrounged out a way to debate CHRYSTIA FREELAND 's Covid relief bill and finally start the engines on every other standing committee that powers the chamber's work. — Finally, committees: Government House Leader MARK HOLLAND stood before QP with a beast of a motion that passed with unanimous consent. Here's the translation from legislativese: → The finance committee will deal with Freeland's Bill C-2. Each party whip will name their members by this afternoon, and FINA will study the bill starting no later than Monday. Freeland will appear as a witness for two hours (sooner rather than later, Playbook reckons, though no date has been set). → The procedure and House affairs committee will gather at 12:30 p.m. for a crucial meeting that starts the work of assembling all of the other standing committees that study, well, just about every single bill that will wend its way through the legislative process. First order of business: Electing a chair. (You can feel the momentum.) → As we shared with Pro readers on Thursday, PROC's members will include Liberals MPs BARDISH CHAGGER, RYAN TURNBULL, MARK GERRETSEN , SHERRY ROMANADO, RUBY SAHOTA and GREG FERGUS. Tories will be MICHAEL BARRETT, BLAINE CALKINS, ERIC DUNCAN and BRAD VIS . The Bloc Québécois will send ALAIN THERRIEN. The NDP will send RACHEL BLANEY. → The House clerk will convene initial meetings for every standing committee no later than Dec. 17. (That's the final sitting day before the long winter break — better late than never?) — Wait, there's more: The House passed C-2 by a vote of 183-129. Playbook noted seven Tories who'd opposed hybrid sittings cast their "nay" votes from outside the chamber — including ARNOLD VIERSEN from the back seat of a car. So it's on to FINA and what Playbook predicts will be a rather accelerated study. THOSE LAB DOCS — Holland wasn't finished for the day. He rose again to propose yet another committee, this one charged with dealing once and for all with reams of sensitive documents related to the dismissal of two scientists, XIANGGUO QIU and KEDING CHENG, from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. This was a whole thing before the election. Liberals refused to disclose documents they said would endanger national security. The president of the Public Health Agency, IAIN STEWART, was even hauled before MPs and formally admonished by the Speaker for failing to hand over the docs. Holland told the chamber Thursday that his government's preference today is the same as it was then: the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), an all-party panel granted top secret clearance, could look at every document the feds felt queasy about releasing to the world. The opposition howled earlier this year that NSICOP was a committee of parliamentarians. But they reported to the prime minister, not Parliament, and he ultimately controlled any report they produced. Trust wasn't exactly strong in those fraught spring months, so the situation ground into a stalemate. Holland acknowledged Thursday that NSICOP was a non-starter, so made another proposal — and it bore striking resemblance to a 2010 arrangement that allowed MPs to look at documents related to the controversial Afghan detainee scandal. — The terms of the deal: Holland pitched an ad hoc committee, supported by "three former senior judges" — retired judges always get work in Canada — that every party supported. They'd meet in a "secure government facility." Bureaucrats would redact documents. MPs would see redacted and unredacted versions. If they disagreed with a redaction, the judges would make the final call. The judges would also decide how to disclose it all publicly. — What's next: The opposition response. Holland put his proposal in writing, sending a letter to his fellow House leaders. Given the emerging tenor of cooperation, don't be surprised if this does the trick. OMG, THERE'S MORE — Speaker ANTHONY ROTA rose after QP to rule on the Tories' insistence that the secretive all-party board of internal economy (BOIE) was acting outside its jurisdiction when it imposed a vaccine mandate on the House precinct. Soon after the Commons reconvened post-Throne Speech, Tory whip BLAKE RICHARDS argued that only the full House had that authority. — He was right: Rota ruled that Richards made a compelling case, and that there was a prima facie question of privilege. That's fancy Speaker-speak for: "It looks like a member's parliamentary privilege was violated." He invited Richards to make a motion of censure or refer the matter to a committee. — Case closed: When Liberals and New Democrats teamed up last week to revive a hybrid House, one of that motion's many clauses included an identical vaccine mandate. That explains why Richards laid down his arms Thursday. "The fact that the precedent has been set is satisfactory," he told the chamber. Point made. MARY’S POP INS — International Trade Minister MARY NG wraps up her three-day all-party mission in D.C. today, but her itinerary doesn’t include time with some key players. The assignment was to double down on efforts to get the U.S. to back down on the controversial EV tax credit in President JOE BIDEN’s Build Back Better plan, which is now in the hands of the U.S. Senate. Also on the to-do list: Advocate for Canadian lumber and P.E.I. spuds. Ng was in D.C. two weeks ago with Prime Minister JUSTIN TRUDEAU. The PM raised his concerns about the proposed EV tax credit IRL at the Three Amigos/Viajeros summit. But weeks later, it’s unclear if Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and finance committee chairman RON WYDEN will keep the measure in the Senate’s version of the BBB reconciliation bill. Ng is in D.C. since the World Trade Organization’s ministerial conference in Geneva was canceled. — Notable absences: Playbook has learned Ng does not have one-on-one meetings scheduled with the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate finance committee this week. But Wyden’s office tells Playbook the Oregon senator has a Zoom meeting planned with Ng for next week. A spokesperson for Sen. MIKE CRAPO , the top Republican on the committee, confirmed he doesn’t have any meetings planned this week with Ng or Canadian officials. — A minister’s meeting receipts: Look to Twitter for a visual record of Canadian diplomacy. Ng brought Canada’s acting Consul General LOUISE BLAIS and Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association FLAVIO VOLPE to meetings with Sen. BILL HAGERTY and Sen. MARSHA BLACKBURN. She had some face time with Puerto Rico’s representative JENNIFFER GONZÁLEZ-COLÓN to talk about P.E.I. potatoes; and shared pictures of her bilats with Sen. RAPHAEL WARNOCK and Sen. TODD YOUNG. While Ng has repeatedly warned the protectionist tax credit undermines obligations in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, she hasn’t publicly threatened legal action, which is what the Mexican government did Thursday with its concerns over the same tax credit. “We would apply trade reprisals,” said Mexican Trade Secretary TATIANA CLOUTHIER. THE FES-TIVE SEASON — Freeland had other news Thursday: the small matter of tabling a Fall Economic Statement, which charts the federal path forward on managing the nation's purse. The big day is Dec. 14, just a few sleeps away from the winter break. — Don't expect surprises: The reelected government has telegraphed just about every major proposal. But we'll be watching the all-important fiscal and economic outlook trends. The Globe and Mail reported that private-sector economists, whose projections help guide federal decisionmakers, gave Freeland an earful at a recent meeting about inflationary pressures and government spending. ANDY BLATCHFORD has a preview for Pro s. — The Tory response: It's predictable, at this point. Finance critic PIERRE POILIEVRE loves big, bad numbers. Here's one: Treasury Board President MONA FORTIER's recently tabled spending estimates pegged overall Budget 2021 expenses at a whopping C$497.6 billion. Freeland's fiscal update will have new deficit and debt projections. Poilievre and Co. will round up. DAYS WITH NO DOCS: 38 — A month has passed since the new Cabinet was sworn in, and still the Prime Minister's Office has made no mention of powerful Cabinet committee membership or new mandate letters for ministers — those key documents that set the government's priorities. Playbook is counting the days. We'll stop when the documents flow. — Pro s can download a poster of Trudeau’s cabinet, and key ministers, here | 
