The House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion from a Liberal backbencher urging an end to veteran homelessness on Thursday.
That comes after the non-binding motion calling on the members to work towards ending veteran homelessness by 2025 was blocked Wednesday from proceeding to a vote by Conservative MP Karen Vecchio, who says she opposed it because she wanted more time to debate the motion.
READ MORE: Motion to end veteran homelessness by 2025 dies without a vote
The Liberals tried to condense debate and proceed immediately to a vote.
Vecchio would not agree to that, which would effectively kill the motion by punting it to the end of the list of government business. That meant it would not be dealt with before the House of Commons rises for the summer on June 21 — just six business days away — and would die on that date. The chamber will not return until after the federal election in the fall.
WATCH BELOW: Conservative MP explains why she blocked a vote on a motion to end veteran homelessness
Liberal MP Neil Ellis, who had moved the motion originally, said on Thursday he planned to rise on a point of order later in the day to seek unanimous consent to adopt the motion, which was the only other option to keep it from dying.
But Vecchio stood up in the House of Commons first and raised her own point of order asking for the same thing.
She argued blocking the vote from proceeding did not mean she did not support the motion itself.
“I rise on a point of order in regards to a tweet claiming that I do not support M-225 and that I was preventing it in the House as well as the fact that I voted against it,” Vecchio said in the House of Commons.
“This claim is categorically false. I want the House to know that I seconded the motion and spoke favourably to the proposal. Further, I would like to seek unanimous consent of the House that motion M-225 has been deemed adopted.”
READ MORE: Cross-party group of MPs call for housing stipend for veterans
Members from all parties unanimously agreed to adopt the motion. It is non-binding, meaning the government is not obligated to take any action as a result of it.
However, the wording of the motion called for an end to the homelessness experienced by an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 veterans in Canada by 2025, a plan in place to do that by next year, and for the government to look at a successful housing voucher program for vets in the United States.
It raises the prospect of whether any of the major federal parties will include similar proposals in their election platforms this fall.
With files from Global’s Abigail Bimman.
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