With the House of Commons set to interrupt its five-week hiatus with a whirlwind one-day sitting to sign off on the government’s proposed $82 billion COVID-19 emergency aid package, here’s a quick rundown on what to expect when the curtain rises tomorrow.

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Let’s start with the basics — as per the latest notice paper, the emergency session will get underway at 12 p.m. EDT with just 32 MPs in the Chamber: 14 Liberals, 11 Conservatives, three Bloc Quebecois members and three New Democrats and one Green MP, with the spaces divvied up to reflect the parties’ overall standings.

As of today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is not expected to be in his front bench seat, as his self-imposed self-isolation period isn’t set to end until later this week.

Despite his conspicuous absence, three of the four opposition party leaders have nevertheless served notice that they’re planning to attend the sitting: Conservative Leader Andrew Scheeer — who, according to media reports, is being flown in by government jet along with his House leader, Candice Bergen and Senate Conservative Leader Don Plett — as well as New Democrat Jagmeet Singh, who was already in the capital, and Bloc Québécois chef Yves-Francois Blanchet.

Meanwhile, rookie New Brunswick MP Jenica Atwin will represent the three-person Green caucus.

Beyond that, there’s no official invite list, but considering that one of the main reasons for shutting down House proceedings until April 20 was to limit cross-country travel by MPs, it’s a good bet that most of the assigned seats will be filled by MPs within driving distance of Ottawa — like, for instance, Alberta Conservative MP Garnett Genuis, who tweeted Sunday that after spending the weekend in Toronto, he’s “camped out at [his] in-laws” before driving to Ottawa on Monday.

Now that we’ve got the tentative cast list out of the way, what can we expect when the doors open on the sparsely populated Chamber?

For one thing, House Speaker Anthony Rota won’t be in the chair.

Instead, the task of overseeing the proceedings will fall to Deputy Speaker Bruce Stanton, who, as Rota’s second-in-procedural-command, also serves as chair of House committees of the whole — which, as per Government House Leader Pablo Rodriguez, is how the government aims to achieve its goal of shuttling the omnibus financial aid bill through all stages in just one sitting.

A quick refresher on committee of the whole: Basically, it’s exactly what it sounds like — MPs agree to temporarily resolve themselves into a committee made up of the whole House, which allows all MPs to review proposed legislation in the Commons itself rather than send it off to a standing committee — which, for obvious reasons, simply isn’t an option in the current context.

As chair of committee of the whole, Stanton was already set to preside over the bulk of tomorrow’s proceedings, which is why, given the goal of limiting the number of MPs involved in the process, it makes sense to have him stay in the chair for the full sitting rather than swap back and forth with Rota.

So, what happens once the COVID-19 committee of the whole gets rolling?

First up: Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who will present the House with legislation to implement the $82 billion financial aid package that he unveiled last week.

(Under normal circumstances, he’d have to wait a full day after introducing the bill to start second reading, but with unanimous consent, the House can waive those rules.)

After he wraps up his initial speech in support of the bill, all three opposition leaders will reportedly be given time to reply to the proposal, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session that will give MPs the opportunity to cross-examine Morneau about his plan.

Under House rules, Morneau can have as many as three departmental officials at his side to help him out with his answers, although they aren’t permitted to take part in the debate or reply directly to MPs.

Meanwhile, MPs are free to take advantage of the less formal rules that govern committee of the whole as opposed to House debate.

They’re not required to sit in their assigned seats in order to be recognized to speak, although they do need to get the nod from the chair to intervene, and while they’re supposed to continue to direct their questions through the chair, that rule is often overlooked in favour of a more natural back-and-forth exchange across the aisle.

They’re also free to speak as many times as they want, and not under the one-intervention-per-stage limit that applies to regular House debate.

READ MORE: Process Nerd: What the COVID-19 shutdown means for Parliament Hill

MPs do, however, have to stick to the topic, as the House rules on relevance and repetition are more strictly enforced during committee of the whole, which means opposition members won’t be able to turn the session into an open-ended inquiry into how the government has handled the pandemic.

There are also no provisions to pause the sitting to hold a standard question period midway through the day, although MPs will, as noted, be able to quiz Morneau on his proposed financial assistance.

Finally, Rodriguez has stated that he and his fellow House leaders have agreed to devote 4.5 hours to the debate, after which MPs may or may not choose to hold a recorded vote on whether to adopt the bill at all stages.

In theory, they could vote on the question after each stage wraps up, but that would eat up a significant chunk of the available time for no good reason, as all parties have indicated that their members will support the bill.

In any case, barring an unexpected shift in cross-aisle opinions, the bill should be signed, sealed and en route to the Senate by the end of the day, with the Upper House set to take over the process on Wednesday.

Oh, and one last heads up: If — and it’s currently still a very tenuous ‘if’ — the government were to invoke the Emergencies Act, the House and Senate would have to be recalled within seven sitting days to review the declaration, and, if necessary, vote on whether to endorse the move.

Given that possibility, there’s a non-zero chance that this won’t be the last time that MPs are summoned back to Ottawa during the ongoing suspension.