Feds to limit debate on massive omnibus budget bill in Senate

PARLIAMENT HILL—The government has served notice it will limit debate on its controversial omnibus Budget Implementation Bill in the Senate, following a 24-hour opposition House of Commons filibuster after the government cut short debate on the sweeping legislation last week.

Conservative Senator Claude Carignan, deputy leader of the government in the Senate, served notice debate at the first stage of the bill’s passage through the Senate will be limited to six hours, beginning Thursday, June 21.

The move came after four separate Senate committees picked the 425-page bill apart during committee hearings that began several weeks ago, prior to House of Commons standoffs that climaxed after a 24-hour marathon of voting on opposition amendment motions last Wednesday through Thursday.

The second-reading vote would normally send legislation into a committee for detailed study, but because of the earlier hearings the Senate Finance Committee might likely hold only a pro forma meeting to report amendments or not from the work of all the committees.

“We tried to come to an agreement with the opposition regarding a process or time to be allotted for debate at second reading, but we were unable to do so,” Sen. Carignan said.

Liberal Senator Joseph Day called the size of the 425-page bill “horrendous” as he began Senate opposition debate on the legislation on Wednesday, noting that in order to scrutinize its 700 clauses closely, the Senate had to assign portions to the Senate Finance Committee, the Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee, the Banking, Trade and Commerce Committee, and the National Security and Defence Committee.

The workload was so heavy, Sen. Day took several moments in his speech to recognize for the work Senate committee staff performed because of the “tremendous pressure” getting such dense legislation through the chain of separate committee hearings.

Sen. Day noted the Senate is not a confidence Chamber, and therefore the government cannot fall from any Senate amendments to a budget. He said for that reason, the Senate opposition normally shows “respect” to the government when dealing with fiscal legislation.

“This is a finance bill about budget implementation, in large part,” Sen. Day said. “This is also a bill to implement certain other measures, and that causes us some concern. It would have been nice if the executive had shown the same respect to us as Parliamentarians, both in the House of Commons and in the Senate, in giving us a bill that could be dealt with as a Budget Implementation Bill as opposed to a [legislative] bill.”

The bill’s 154 pages of sweeping new changes to the federal environmental assessment regime, which also gives Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) Cabinet new powers above the National Energy Board to approve large oil pipelines such as the proposed Enbridge Inc. plan to ship oil sands bitumen from Alberta to the B.C. coast, drew the widest public and opposition criticism as the government rushed the legislation through the Commons.

But other clauses unrelated to normal budgetary measures also came under fire.

The Senate could possibly pass the bill by the end of next week, ensuring that the controversial environmental and other measures are in force before Parliament shuts down entirely for the summer.

The House of Commons will adjourn for the summer recess on Thursday, shortly after Question Period.

Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Tim Naumetz