Sen. Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu takes a moment during the release of the Senate Committee's final report on court delays in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 14, 2017. iPolitics/Matthew Usherwood

A Conservative senator has written to his colleagues on the chamber’s legal and constitutional affairs committee to seek their support to hear from Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion about his damning SNC-Lavalin report.

In a letter provided to iPolitics, Pierre Hugues Boisvenu, deputy chair of the committee, asked his counterparts to support his request to have the Senate’s government representative and opposition leader convene a meeting where Dion would be invited to testify on his findings that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau violated the Conflict of Interest Act.

“The committee must give Commissioner Dion the opportunity to answer the questions of parliamentarians before the end of the current Parliament,” Boisvenu wrote in the letter, dated August 29.

All current Senate committees are dissolved once the writs are issued for the next election, which is expected to take place in the next few weeks. Boisvenu’s letter was directed to committee chair Serge Joyal, a Liberal, and fellow deputy chair Renée Dupuis, a member of the Independent Senators Group. Despite the name, the Senate Liberal caucus has no formal relationship with the party’s House caucus.

Conservative Sen. Don Plett told iPolitics on Friday that he had yet to receive a response to his nearly week-old request to the Senate’s government representative, Peter Harder, asking him to recall the committee to hear from Dion. However, Harder’s office said it hasn’t received any formal request to reconvene from the chair and deputy chairs of the committee, as required under Senate rules.

READ MORE: Tories, Harder clash over recalling legal committee to hear from Dion

Harder’s office provided a copy of a letter it said it sent to Plett later on Friday acknowledging his request but noting it hasn’t received anything at the time from the committee chair and deputy chairs, including Boisvenu.

“As you would know, in order for a Senate committee to meet when the Senate is adjourned for more than a week, the Rules of the Senate require that a written request be made by the Chair and Deputy Chairs of the committee. I have not been asked to consider any such request,” reads the letter from Harder, dated Aug. 23.

“I would therefore recommend that you direct your questions to Senator Boisvenu, your caucus colleague.”

Plett’s office responded in a statement to iPolitics that the senator is “well aware of the rules” but wanted Harder’s “concurrence before initiating a request through the formal channels,” adding that this is “now underway.”

“It’s obvious that Senator Harder is simply dragging his feet – probably in hopes that the writ will be dropped,” Plett’s office said.

The office of Senate Conservative Leader Larry Smith, who also serves as the chamber’s official opposition leader, provided a copy of Boisvenu’s letter to iPolitics on Thursday, warning that it’s unclear how much longer the Senate will remain active before the election is officially called.

Last week, the Liberal majority on the House ethics committee defeated an opposition motion to hear from Dion about his SNC-Lavalin affair report.

All Liberal members at the committee meeting, save for Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, voted to defeat the motion moved by Conservative MP Peter Kent. A motion moved by NDP member Charlie Angus to hear from Trudeau, Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Morneau’s chief of staff, Ben Chin, was also defeated, with Erskine-Smith voting against the motion alongside his fellow Liberal MPs.

READ MORE: Liberals on ethics committee defeat opposition motion to hear from Dion

*This story has been updated with further details about the timing of the letters sent by Senator Plett and Senator Harder.

Senator Boisvenu’s full letter can be found below: