The Liberals appear poised to rework the composition of committees in the House of Commons after securing a majority in Monday’s byelections.

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.

He specifically cited debate at the justice committee over the government’s anti-hate bill that as an egregious example, noting that in one case an MP “read into the record their love of cats and dogs.”

“There’s a difference between real testimony, real substance, getting to issues, debating aspects of law, advancing — that’s the job of parliamentarians — and showboating,” he said.

“We’re going to have less of that. We’re going to have more substance. I think all parliamentarians in the end, we’ll appreciate that, even if it’s a change for some of them.”

Carney was referring to comments made by Conservative MP Andrew Lawton, who was voicing his opposition to an amendment to Bill C-9 that would remove the religious exemption for the hate speech crime.

He was attempting to make the point that without free speech, Canadians would be limited to debating their preferred pets.

Conservative MPs said the government was attempting to rework committees to silence the voice of the opposition, noting the Liberals are stalling efforts at the ethics committee to compel Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne to testify about his personal relationship with a senior executive at the Crown corporation helming the high-speed rail project.

Conservative MP Ellis Ross said it’s stonewalling from the government that’s derailing the work of committees.

“Committees… just try and get facts and truth and we have a tough time from ministers, trying to get facts and truth. So, the showboating thing, I haven’t seen that yet,” he said.

As other outlets have reported, Champagne’s office has provided an email from the federal ethics commissioner’s office stating the minister was not in a conflict of interest. This is because Alto is accountable to Parliament through the minister of transport, not the finance minister, the email read.

Since Parliament opened last spring, the Liberals have been forced to retool bills after criticism from the opposition benches.

The government’s first border security bill, C-2, was pulled amid outcry from privacy advocates and opposition parties, who objected to measures that would give police the power to obtain subscriber information without a warrant and grant Canada Post an expanded authority to open mail, among other changes.

Neither measure was contained in the stand-alone lawful access bill, known as C-22, that was introduced last month.

READ MORE: Liberals table revised lawful access bill, eliminating powers to obtain subscriber information without a warrant

Bill C-9 was also reworked at committee after discussion with faith communities, to clarify the legislation doesn’t apply to “worship, sermons, prayer, religious education, peaceful debate, or even the good faith of reading and discussion of religious texts.”

Asked by iPolitics what reassurances the government could offer that the Liberals wouldn’t steamroll dissenting voices, Justice Minister Sean Fraser said they listen to “other parties and to people from other backgrounds not because of the numbers in the House of Commons, but because actually improves the quality of decisions we make.”

“There’s actually a lot of engagement that goes on between the government and other parties, and I hope that’s going to continue — for my part as a minister, it’s certainly going to continue,” he said.

“We’re going to engage with people from different walks of life in community but also in the House of Commons. I think Canadians are expecting that the government, as we espouse a Team Canada message in our international dealings, are going to breathe life into that value in our engagement in Parliament.”