It may be grey in Ottawa, but things are clearing up nicely for the Liberals.

After locking in a majority this week, the government is turning to one of Parliament’s less flashy, but highly strategic levers: committee control.

Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon wouldn’t offer a date for when he would move a motion to make the change, but told reporters on Wednesday that “it’s pretty generally accepted that the composition of committees must reflect the composition of the House of Commons.”

A motion passed at the start of the Parliament last spring evenly split membership on committees between the governing Liberals and the opposition Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois. This allows the opposition parties to team up to vote down the government as committee chairs don’t vote unless there’s a tie and most committee chairs are assigned to the government.

It was widely expected the Liberals would pass a motion to change the committee composition once they secured a majority, and Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday criticized “performative” debates at committee that he blamed for slowing down legislation.

Marco Vigliotti has this one. 

Also, QP Briefing has learned that Navdeep Bains is being courted to enter the race to lead the Ontario Liberals.

Sources close to Bains and the party say he’s been making calls to key Liberal figures, who are encouraging him to run. Bains was making the rounds at the federal Liberal convention this past weekend in Montreal.

One source, who asked not to be identified to speak candidly, said “excitement is building” on Bains potentially entering the race.

Bains, who’s currently chief corporate affairs officer at Rogers Communications, is widely known for his tenure in Ottawa as industry minister under former prime minister Justin Trudeau. During that time, he was one of the longest-serving ministers in the portfolio and played a central role in shaping Canada’s innovation and skills agenda.

Since leaving federal politics, Bains has held senior roles in the private sector, including a stint as Vice-Chair of Global Investment Banking at CIBC, where he focused on innovation, sustainability, and industrial strategy. Earlier in his career, he worked in accounting and finance at Ford Motor Company of Canada.

Marco Vigliotti and Queen’s Park reporter Barbara Patrocinio have more. 

Now some news about energy.

Ottawa’s bet is simple: if everything is about to run on electricity, it better run efficiently.

As Canada leans harder into electrification, the government says tougher standards on everyday appliances could help keep both emissions and hydro bills from spiking.

It’s one of the more powerful ways the federal government can alter energy consumption.

To that end, the Senate is continuing its review of Bill S-4, which updates 1995’s Energy Efficiency Act.

Energy Minister Tim Hodgson made an appearance at the Upper Chamber Tuesday to discuss the proposed amendments.

He talked about how the original legislation enabled Natural Resources Canada to set and enforce standards, while also creating the EnerGuide labelling.

Sydney Ko has more. 

In Other Headlines

Internationally

Meanwhile, the war in Sudan has reached a grim milestone. 

As the country enters the fourth year of its deadly civil war, donors from around the world have committed $US 1.5 billion in humanitarian aid in a meeting about the conflict held in Berlin. 

“This nightmare must end,” said Antonio Guterres, the UN’s Secretary-General.

Nearly 34 million people across the country are in desperate need of aid, and more than 4.5 million people have been displaced from their homes. Widespread human rights abuses have been reported since the war began in April 2023, from ethnic massacres to systemic sexual violence. 

The Sudanese foreign ministry has expressed its frustration with not being closely involved in the discussions in Berlin, calling it a “colonial approach” by Western states. 

Al Jazeera has more. 

Ukraine’s top military official, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi announced that March was a busy month for Ukraine’s long-range weapons operators. 

Ukrainian strikes reached deep into Russian territory over the past month, with 76 industrial targets being struck by long-range weaponry, Syrskyi said in a Telegram statement today. 

“We counter Russian quantity with Ukrainian quality in conducting military operations,” the country’s highest-ranking four star general said, “forcing the opponent to play by our rules and delaying the timelines for fulfilling its objectives.” 

In the latter half of March, Russian offensive operations ramped up, according to the statement. Syrskyi said that more than 6,000 Russian soldiers were believed to have been killed over a three day period between March 17 and 20. 

Read more from the Kyiv Independent. 

In Other International Headlines

The Kicker

Some good news and some bad for Ottawa cyclists.

Good news: the City is eyeing a return of its bike-share program.

Bad news: there will be a bit of a wait, as the city’s public works and infrastructure committee will only begin to discuss a study on April 23 about the program.

The matter could be brought to a vote by mid-2027.

Find out more from CBC.