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These are days of big announcements.

On Feb. 19, the prime minister announced that the federal government intends to construct a high-speed rail line between Quebec City and Toronto, with a stop in Ottawa. This is a major public infrastructure project with an immediate budgetary cost of some $3.9 billion and a total cost estimated at anywhere between $80 and $120 billion.

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On Feb. 17, the prime minister and the minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Gary Anandasangaree announced the conclusion of a major agreement with the Haida Nation that will recognize its title to Haida Gwaii. This is an important step in Canada’s relations with First Nations, the full implications of which have yet to be worked out.

And on Feb. 20, Canadian Heritage Minister Pascal Ste-Onge announced her proposal to modernize the mandate, governance and funding of CBC/Radio-Canada, a project long in the making and one on which parliamentarians of all parties have strong views. Yet she did this just weeks before there is to be a new prime minister and cabinet and before her own departure from Parliament.

What do these three announcements have in common?

All three were made by a caretaker prime minister and cabinet, with the campaign for leader of the Liberal Party and prime minister of Canada underway, the government in a minority position and Parliament prorogued. We are in a period of interregnum between the departure of one prime minister and the arrival of his successor, who will be chosen by the party on March 9. All three opposition parties have said they will vote down the government when Parliament returns.

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Prorogation means that the usual business of the House of Commons has been terminated. Important announcements that might have been made in the House — and all three of these would certainly fall under that category — cannot be made there because the House is not sitting.

Parliament has therefore had no opportunity to subject any of these major initiatives to critical scrutiny. Parliament is an afterthought. Or, to put it in crude terms, a caretaker prime minister and cabinet appear to be acting like an activist government when they have no mandate to do so.

Normally, in the period between the calling of an election and the swearing in of a government afterwards, the government of the day is supposed to refrain from making major discretionary decisions or announcements. The routine business of government carries on, as it must, but it is an important convention of our Westminster system that the government does not take the opportunity of the period between one sdministration and another to announce big decisions. This is called the “caretaker convention.” It’s a norm, a governing convention, not a law. But that doesn’t make it any less important.

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Technically, we are not in a caretaker situation. While a federal election has not yet been called, it’s obvious that the circumstances today are far from a normal. Parliament has been prorogued in order that the governing Party can have the free time required to select a new prime minister. Yet however useful prorogation may have been in political or practical terms, it does impose upon the prime minister a duty of care, a duty of respect for the institutions in his charge. Making big decisions of a discretionary nature violates the spirit of the caretaker convention.

If an emergency comes up, then of course the government may have to make and announce tough decisions. Many would argue that the almost daily threats emanating from the White House will require decisive action by the government of Canada. But these latest announcements have nothing to do with the economic and sovereignty attacks by U.S. President Donald Trump. Parliament should be there to debate and decide matters of national importance, particularly if new legislation is required to respond to a new threat. But again, Parliament is not sitting.

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Does this matter? Yes, it does. By bending and distorting the spirit of a well-established Westminster convention, these major policy and program announcements undermine respect for our system of government. They contribute to a broader erosion of public trust in public institutions. They suggest to Canadians that the conventions underpinning our democracy don’t really matter — after all, if there’s no law against it, why not take advantage of this almost unique circumstance?

At bottom, this is all about respect for the conventions that underpin our system of Westminster government. It’s about respect for Parliament and parliamentarians. And ultimately, it’s a matter of respect for Canadians.

Kevin Lynch is a former Clerk of the Privy Council and deputy minister of Finance. Mel Cappe is a former Clerk of the Privy Council and deputy minister of Human Resources Development. Jim Mitchell is a former senior official in the Privy Council Office.

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