Government House Leader Peter Van Loan made clear Wednesday that the government would not accede to the NDP’s request to split up its budget legislation.
“We are committed to implementing our budget. Canadians expect their government to make decisions,” said Van Loan, who held several days of discussion with the NDP over the handling of the bill.
“Across the world political gridlock and indecision has led to economic uncertainty and continues to threaten the world economy. This is not what Canadians want from their government,” Van Loan told reporters.
NDP House leader Nathan Cullen expressed disappointment over the Conservatives’ decision and said he will meet with his caucus to decide how to go about opposing passage of Bill-38.
“For us, this is a significant, significant fight,” Cullen said. “That means, unfortunately, we need to bring every tool that we can to the table.”
He added, “We’re attempting in every way we can and have attempted in good faith — publicly and privately — to work with this government. They have chosen another path.”
With the Conservatives holding a majority in the Commons, it is not clear how long the opposition parties can stall passage of the legislation. And Cullen did not say what specific tactics would be employed. Last summer, the NDP staged a 58-hour marathon filibuster to slow passage of back-to-work legislation for locked-out Canada Post workers.
The bill is one of the longest pieces of omnibus legislation brought in by the Tories. At more than 400 pages touching on dozens of laws, it contains major changes across the spectrum of federal responsibility, including environmental protection, Employment Insurance, border security, immigration, pensions, national parks, foreign aid and other programs.
Opposition MPs and critics of the bill have accused the Tories of trying to ram through extensive changes with little debate. They have been pressing the government to split off elements of the budget bill for more in-depth study by Commons’ committees.
But Van Loan said the Conservatives have set out a “fair” process to consider the legislation, including what he called the longest debate at second reading of any budget bill in recent memory. He also said the environmental changes, which make up a large portion of the bill, will be studied by a subcommittee of the Commons finance committee.
Van Loan said the New Democrats simply want to break up the budget bill into seven separate pieces of legislation, “all of which they would continue to oppose.”
“This kind of instability would be bad for Canada’s economy and Canadians,” he said.
On Monday, the New Democrats had formally asked the government to chop up the bill into smaller pieces of legislation.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Les Whittington
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