Usually, when you hear about a debate happening only weeks before a federal election you'd expect it to be between the party leaders.  

But a debate is scheduled to take place Tuesday night (Aug. 20) in Winnipeg between Banff-Airdrie MP Blake Richards and Winnipeg North MP Kevin Lamoureux that's all about a motion introduced in the Commons by Richards and the Liberal government's apparent lack of action on recommendations made on that motion.

Motion 110 was introduced by Richards in an attempt to get more financial help as well as more compassion from the government when dealing with families who have suffered the loss of an infant child.  Richards' motion was sparked by conversations he had with Sarah and Lee Cormier who lost their four-month-old daughter Quinn to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in 2015.

Richards non-partisan motion received unanimous support when he originally introduced it in the House.  Since then the motion has gone to a committee to study it and make recommendations.  Finally, in February of this year, the report with recommendations came out.  Since that time Richards says there has been an obvious lack of movement on putting those recommendations into play.  Just prior to the House adjourning for the summer, Richards asked for an update on why those recommendations hadn't been acted upon.  That's when Lamoureux, who is the Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government got involved.

"He (Lamoureux) stood up in the debate basically to shut down debate on the motion.  It was a procedural trick that was basically played to shut down the opportunity to have a debate and have a vote on the motion and in doing so he indicated he'd welcome a debate both in my riding and in his."

Richards reached out to Sarah Cormier in Airdrie and the Winnipeg Walk to Remember, a group for bereaved parents in Manitoba to see if they'd be willing to host the debates.  Both responded favourably but Richards says Lamoureux later reneged on coming to Calgary for the second half of the debate.  For now, Richards says, the one in Winnipeg is still a go for Tuesday night. 

Richards says the recommendations released by the committee studying Motion 110 were, for the most part, ones that would have been very easy to put into place.  "It was a matter of making sure there is proper training for some of the Service Canada agents in what they do when they're dealing with people who are grieving the loss of a child.  Things like setting up a dedicated website or phone line that people can call where they'll have the proper resources at their disposal.  Things like that can be done pretty quickly."

Other recommendations, such as setting up a longer benefit period for people going through the loss of a child might take a bit longer Richards admits, but, "It doesn't appear there have been any steps taken into even looking into that," Richards says.

Richards hopes the debate will bring to light whether or not the government intends to take action on his motion.  "People will then have a decision to make on whether they want to elect a government that is committed to taking action or not."

In a recent interview with Discover Airdrie, Sarah Cormier said they were looking for 12 weeks of government support for parents following the death of an infant child.  They also want the government to provide sensitivity training for staff at Service Canada who deal with those parents and better information for parents on the Service Canada website. 

Richards says anyone can go to his Facebook page to submit questions for either him or Lamoureux that will be asked during the debate.  He is hoping to stream Tuesday night's debate on his Facebook page.