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“This would give the minister of finance the power to do anything, literally,” Scott told the National Post.

The updated legislation changed the text from “any entity” to “provincial and territorial governments,” vastly restricting what bodies those federal funds can flow into. The new text allows payments to entities only after the government has consulted with provinces and territories. Ottawa has already pledged $500 million to lower orders of government in additional healthcare funding.

Opposition members also denounced the fact that section four of the initial draft gave the minister of health the ability to spend “all money required to do anything” if the minister “determines that there is a public health event of national concern.”

Photo by Blair Gable/Reuters

Critics again balked at the sweeping language of the proposed text. An updated version provides the same powers to the minister, but more specifically stipulates that the spending would need to come amid “the spread of an infectious disease, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).”

Also on Wednesday, policymakers passed a motion that will compel Morneau to appear before the House finance committee every two weeks to update the public on where and how much money has been spent.

The legislation was introduced in order to trigger $27 billion in aid spending first announced by Morneau last week, as part of an effort to help families and businesses cover their cost of living through the COVID-19 pandemic. That figure could will soar much higher with the passage of Bill C-13, which sets no upper limit on how much Ottawa can spend to combat the economic fallout from the virus.

Morneau on Wednesday had already upped his initial cost estimate for the measures to $52 billion, as employment insurance claims soar.

• Email: jsnyder@postmedia.com | Twitter: jesse_snyder