After powering down for a pre-scheduled pause last week, the House of Commons is set to reopen for business tomorrow morning, and although his minority government is still a few votes shy of being able to win a vote without the support of at least one other party, Prime Minister Mark Carney has nevertheless managed to add a new player to his mid-bench lineup: namely, now former Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux, who served notice last week that he would be joining the Liberal caucus.

As yet, there’s no word on when Jeneroux will make his first appearance on the government side of the House of Commons, but it’s a safe bet that he’ll get a very warm welcome from his new caucus, which, it’s worth noting, includes two other MPs who were initially elected under the Conservative banner last spring, Chris D’Entremont and Michael Ma.

At the top of Team Carney’s legislative to-do list: Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s 641-page plan to roll out measures outlined in his inaugural budget last fall, which is now on track to make it back onto the floor of the House of Commons by mid-week, and could — at least in procedural theory — get the green light to proceed to the Senate before MPs head home for another week-long hiatus on Friday.

As per a motion adopted just before MPs headed back to their ridings on Feb. 13, the House FINANCE committee will begin clause-by-clause review on Monday morning, with the ensuing debate over proposed amendments to continue until 5 p.m. ET, at which point “all remaining amendments submitted to the committee shall be deemed moved,” with all further votes to be called immediately without further debate, and the bill itself — which is all but certain to undergo at least a minor rewrite — due to be reported back to the House of Commons by Wednesday afternoon at the latest.

Depending on just how long it takes to get through the final two rounds of debate, the bill could be off to the Upper House by the end of the week.

For their part, the Conservatives have served notice that they’re prepared to use their next scheduled supply day to trigger a day-long debate — and, eventually, a vote — on a non-binding motion that cites the growing cost of the Interim Federal Health Program, which, it notes, is “projected to rise to $1.5 billion by 2029-30,” and calls on the government to “review federal benefits provided to asylum claimants in order to find savings for taxpayers,” as well as “restrict federal benefits received by rejected asylum claimants to emergency lifesaving healthcare only.” (Tuesday)

If adopted, the motion, which stands in the name of party leader Pierre Poilievre, would also challenge the government to “provide transparency on federal spending on the IFHP by providing an annual report to Parliament,” as well as “pass policies to immediately expel foreign nationals convicted of serious crime in Canada.”

Barring a sudden scheduling change, the motion would go to a vote on Wednesday afternoon.

Also on the radar: The latest batch of supplementary estimates, which were tabled just before the House of Commons shut down for its most recent week-long hiatus and include $5.4 billion in new spending proposals, including $2.2 billion for “defence investments and operations,” $1 billion of which would be set aside to “cover urgent and unforeseen defence requirements,” according to the summary provided by Treasury Board President Shafqat Ali.

“Approval is also sought for $348.4 million for First Nations Child and Family Services to preserve the ability for children to be cared for in their communities and $155.6 million for Indigenous healthcare services,” the release notes.

“A request of $300.4 million for Veterans and their families will respond to an increase in applications for various benefits.”

As per standard parliamentary protocols, those spending requests must be approved — or, alternately, rejected — before the current supply cycle winds down on Mar. 26, and are automatically considered to be a question of confidence, but can be adopted on division without a recorded vote.

The Parliamentary Budget Office will release its initial assessment of proposed new spending tomorrow (Monday a.m.), and at least one committee — GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS AND ESTIMATES — is set to begin reviewing its House-assigned section during a one-hour back-and-forth with Canada Post vice-president Carrie Chisholm that, as per the notice, will also focus on Canada Post-related provisions in the budget bill. (Tuesday p.m.)

Outside the chamber, JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS members are once again scheduled to circle back to Justice Minister Sean Fraser’s bid to expand the current laws against hate crimes to include “hate propaganda,” including the public display of swastikas or other symbols of hate, although as yet, there’s no word on whether the Conservatives are prepared to drop their coordinated campaign to block the bill from proceeding through clause-by-clause review, which has been effectively on hold since December. (Monday a.m.)

Elsewhere on the committee circuit:

TRANSPORT, INFRASTRUCTURE AND COMMUNITIES members will get the chance to talk to Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon about “improving VIA Rail’s safety and customer service,” as well as ongoing efforts aimed at “supporting, diversifying and modernizing” Canada’s ports, with senior officials from the Hamilton-Oshawa, Nanaimo and Quebec port authorities also on the witness list. (Monday a.m.)

Over at CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION, MPs will review the current immigration system with expert testimony from the Caregivers’ Action Samaritan Movement, Immitracker Inc. and the Sudanese Canadian Community Association, as well as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada and lawyer James Yousif. (Monday a.m.)

SCIENCE AND RESEARCH members take a closer look at the “governance and accountability of federal science policy and institutions” with Center for Scientific Integrity executive director Ivan Oransky, Acfas – Association francophone pour le savoir president Martin Maltais and academics and researchers from the University of British Columbia, University of Victoria, Université de Montréal and Toronto Metropolitan University. (Monday p.m.)

AGRICULTURE AND AGRI-FOOD members continue their self-initiated investigation into the potential impact of closing federal research centres with senior representatives of the Agri-Food Innovation Council, Western Crop Innovations and Centre d’expertise et de transfert en agriculture biologique et de proximité, as well as Conservative MP Blaine Calkins, who will appear alongside Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative MLA Elizabeth Smith-McCossin. (Tuesday a.m.)

STATUS OF WOMEN members will hear from National Police Federation president Brian Sauvé, National Family and Survivors Circle president Hilda Anderson-Pyrz and Regroupement des maisons pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale as they go through the fine print of Conservative MP Frank Caputo’s backbench proposal to strengthen current protections against intimate partner violence, including — but not limited to — making it more difficult for those charged with such offences to be released on bail, which secured all-party support at second reading.  (Tuesday p.m.)

Also on Tuesday: FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT members will get an update on what the notice describes as the “humanitarian crisis in Cuba” during a panel discussion with senior departmental officials, as well as Cuba’s ambassador to Canada, Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz. (Tuesday p.m.)

Four months after being tapped to head up the newly created Defence Investment Agency, Doug Guzman will field questions from NATIONAL DEFENCE members. (Wednesday p.m.)

Rounding out the roster, PROCEDURE AND HOUSE AFFAIRS members will chat with former British Columbia chief electoral officer Anton Boegman about his pending appointment as Canada’s first-ever foreign influence transparency commissioner, which must be approved by both the House of Commons and the Senate.  (Thursday a.m.)

In and around the precinct:

• Ukrainian Canadian Congress CEO Ihor Michalchyshyn joins Canada-Ukraine Foundation executive director Valeriy Kostyuk and two “displaced” Ukrainian students currently in Canada to “mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” and kick off a new campaign “focused on supporting Ukraine’s long-term sustainability and recovery.” (Monday a.m.)
• Professional Institute of the Public Service president Sean O’Reilly hits the West Block press theatre alongside a full contingent of PIPSC officials to promote the release of a new report, ‘Phoenix: 10 Years of Failure,’ which, as per the notice, examines “why the system failed, why serious problems persist, and what the experience reveals about how complex government systems are delivered by private consultants.” (Monday a.m.)
• Bloc Québécois MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval teams up with consumers’ rights groups to highlight concerns over the state of airline passenger protection laws in Canada, as well as what the advisory frames as the slow pace of rolling out a system to handle passenger complaints and requests for compensation. (Monday a.m.)
• Women’s Health Coalition of Canada chair Carmen Wyton, Society of Gynecologic Oncology of Canada president Shannon Salvador and Manitoba provincial lead Sarah Kean brief reporters on the “priority recommendations” included in a new white paper on how the federal government “can eliminate cervical cancer” in Canada. (Wednesday a.m.)

On the ministerial hustings: Health Minister Marjorie Michel will share the details of a new initiative aimed at supporting “men’s and boys’ health” during a mid-morning media availability in Ottawa, according to her office. (Monday a.m.)

Later this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Defence Minister David McGuinty will welcome their respective South Korean counterparts to the capital for what the advisory notes will be the “second Canada-Republic of Korea Foreign and Defence 2+2 Ministerial Meeting,” which will include a signing ceremony for a new bilateral deal on the protection of classified information. (Wednesday)