Despite the go-ahead from House Speaker Andrew Scheer to proceed with hundreds of proposed amendments to the government's omnibus budget bill, the opposition continued to hammer the Conservatives Monday over their refusal to break up the legislation.
Scheer said Monday the NDP, Liberals and independent MPs have the right to present their more than 800 proposed changes to Bill C-38.
However, he said he will limit the number of votes on proposed changes to the budget implementation bill -- with a possibility of up to as many as 169 votes.
"There are few precedents to guide the Speaker in dealing with this type of situation," Scheer told the House as he explained his decision.
"In my selection of motions, in their grouping and in the organization of the votes, I have made every effort to respect both the wishes of the House and my responsibility to organize the consideration of report stage motions in a fair and balanced manner."
Green Party leader Elizabeth May had argued the bill itself, which is more than 400 pages long and changes more than 70 laws, contravened Parliamentary procedures. However, Scheer ruled Bill C-38 falls within House of Commons regulations.
Despite the partial victory, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair accused the government of trying to hide cuts to vital departments and services, from food inspection to border security to Employment Insurance.
"The list goes on and on," Mulcair said. "The Conservatives can't even tell Parliament the details of their own proposals, or how much they will cost. If the Conservatives are so proud of all these cuts, why are they hiding them? Why are they ramming them through? If they're so good, why not study them?"
Government House Leader Peter Van Loan skirted the question entirely, instead hailing his government's record on the economy and job creation and saying future economic growth depends on the bill’s passage.
"Our government has been focused on the economy, on job creation and doing that in the short term and the long term," Van Loan said in response to Mulcair's question. "As a result of our Economic Action Plan consistently opposed by the NDP, we've delivered for Canadians over 760,000 net new jobs so far."
The 400-page Budget Implementation Act amends roughly 70 pieces of legislation ranging from rules around approvals for major environmental projects to landmark changes to Employment Insurance and Old Age Security.
The proposed changes were introduced in the Conservatives' March budget, with many broadly aimed at protecting the economy, but not specifically related to the budget.
Among the more contentious elements of the bill is the Shared Services Canada Act, which outlines the powers of a new federal department, and legislation which would specify powers for Canadian and U.S. police working across the border.
The Conservatives maintain the opposition parties are more interested in stalling, and if possible halting the bill altogether, rather than working with the Conservatives to make it better.
The government has so far refused to accept any changes to the bill, which was studied in committee, and has refused to split the omnibus legislation into separate bills.
Because the Conservatives have a majority in Commons, the bill is expected to eventually pass.
When speaking to reporters earlier Monday, Liberal House leader Marc Garneau called C-38 a "kitchen sink" bill and said the legislation "goes way too far."
The Liberals want portions of the bill that pertain to EI, OAS, fisheries regulations and environmental legislation removed from the bill and introduced as separate legislation.
Later on CTV’s Power Play, Garneau said it is “completely ludicrous” for the government to argue the bill as it stands is essential to Canada’s economic prosperity.
“Talk about fisheries, changing the Fisheries Act,” Garneau said. “Is the economy going to fall apart if this Fisheries Act change that they want to implement is treated separately in due course? No, it isn’t. It’s a complete sham for them to say this is all urgent for the current fragile economy.”
On Power Play, Van Loan dismissed the opposition’s proposed amendments to the bill, calling it an exercise in “turning voting against (the bill) once into voting against it hundreds of times.”
NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen said opposition to the bill is also about defending parliamentary process.
“There’s no way they got all this right, and Canadians will feel these impacts when they go to get Employment Insurance, when they go to get their pensions, when they see another pipeline break and they wonder where the environmental protections are,” Cullen told Power Play.
“Those are all things that are going to last more than just a budget cycle, we’re worried they’re going to last a generation. So they needed to feel a little bit of pinch on this, and hopefully voting 25, 26 hours in a row will give them a little pause the next time they try to do something like this.”
Also on Monday, Cullen asked Scheer to rule on whether the government has breached MPs’ parliamentary privileges by withholding key budget data requested by Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page.
Scheer would have to rule on that request fairly soon, as voting on C-38 could begin anytime.
Because MPs can churn through about seven votes per hour, it's estimated that it will take between 10 and 23 hours of continuous voting for MPs to get through the order paper, reported CTV News Channel’s Mercedes Stephenson.
May has proposed 320 amendments to the bill, which introduces new laws and even creates a new government agency. The New Democrats and Liberals have each put forward amendments to delete more than 500 clauses in the bill and Bloc MPs have submitted 22.
Because many of the amendments overlap, the total number of proposed changes that could have come before Parliament was 871.
May defended the high number of amendments she has proposed, saying they are necessary for a bill that seeks to amend 70 pieces of legislation.
“I wouldn’t be doing my job if I hadn’t put forward hundreds of amendments, because that’s what it takes,” May told Power Play. “Hundreds of amendments to repair the damage that was being done and will be done by C-38 unless it’s amended.”
Earlier, May told CTV News Channel: "The scope of changes in one piece of legislation is appalling, illegitimate and anti-democratic and to attempt to use the democratic process to fix those changes, to make them acceptable, takes a minimum of 320 amendments."
Officially considered an independent MP in Parliament, May has the ability to propose rewrites to portions of the bill. New Democrat and Liberal MPs, by contrast, can only propose deletions. As a result the Liberals have been working with May on hundreds of proposed changes.
