OTTAWA—A Commons committee recommended the government be found in contempt of Parliament, but the Conservatives could still avoid the historic censure if a vote on the budget or other confidence motion launches an election first.

The Commons procedure and house affairs committee tabled a majority report Monday concluding the government is in contempt for refusing to disclose enough information about the cost of several big-ticket items.

Those would be documents about the price tags for its law-and-order agenda, corporate tax cuts and the plan to buy stealth combat jets, with all the opposition MPs on the committee voting to condemn the government for withholding requested documents without giving adequate reasons why.

“This is an unprecedented cascade of abuse,” Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said during Question Period on Monday after describing recent scandals involving allegations of influence peddling and election fraud in addition to contempt. “The issue here is one of trust. How can Canadians remain trusting of a government guilty of such flagrant abuse of power?”

New Democrat Leader Jack Layton said he is still waiting for the budget before deciding whether to support the government, but added the government being in contempt adds another layer.

“The committee has found the government in contempt and that’s a very serious finding,” Layton told reporters outside the Commons on Monday. “There’s no doubt it makes it more difficult to operate around here when you’re dealing with a government that’s so contemptuous of Canadians.”

If the report is adopted by the Commons — and it likely would be, given all three opposition parties passed it at committee level — then this would be the first time in the history of the Commonwealth that a government is found in contempt of Parliament.

The penalty for such a finding could involve, in theory, jail time, although on March 10 Prime Minister Stephen Harper dismissed the rebukes from House Speaker Peter Milliken that led to three days of contempt hearings as just part of “the game of democratic politics.”

Conservative MPs on the committee tabled a minority report accusing the opposition members across the table of not taking the contempt investigation seriously enough. It also accused them of ignoring information the government provided and making up their minds before seeing the evidence.

“The report tabled by the committee is simply a piece of partisan gamesmanship that diminishes the important work of Parliament,” the minority report concluded.

But Harper and his government could still benefit by playing — rather than dismissing — their own procedural games to delay a debate and subsequent vote on a formal finding of contempt.

“We aren’t out of the woods yet in terms of having the contempt thing dealt with in Parliament itself,” said New Democrat MP Pat Martin (Winnipeg Centre).

That is because the government has filled the order paper with some other reports and motions that may need to be out of the way first, pushing the contempt issue far enough into the future the minority government could fall before a formal finding ever happens.

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Martin said that would make the committee report “less poignant,” but added it nonetheless sends an important message.

“It’s still an unprecedented and historic situation and it is still a big black eye for the government,” Martin said.

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