Green Party Leader Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) will be moving the majority of those amendments relating to environmental provisions found in Bill C-38, the Budget Implementation Bill. As she is the only Green MP in the House and her party is not recognized as an official party, Ms. May cannot sit on committees, but is allowed to introduce substantive amendments when bills return to the House at report stage.
Liberal House Leader Marc Garneau (Westmount-Ville Marie, Que.) told The Hill Times last week that it takes approximately one hour to move four roll call votes through the House.
Ms. May said she predicts that once the voting begins, it will take about 50 to 60 hours to get through. That means MPs could be sitting for two-and-a-half-days straight before the voting is over.
“There’s nothing I won’t do to stop it,” she told The Hill Times. “I think since I moved the amendment I can’t leave my seat at all. Yeah. But that’s for all Members. If you leave your seat, you miss the vote. If it gets to where people can’t take it anymore maybe the opposition starts winning votes.”
Ms. May said that’s precisely why governments should not introduce omnibus bills that make changes to 70 pieces of legislation.
“If you respect Westminster Parliamentary democracy, you approach bills according to a theme that is coherent and has integrity; one idea at a time. Even an omnibus bill is, under our rules, one theme, one principle, one policy area at a time. This is not appropriate. This is an abuse of power,” she said. “And what tools does a responsible opposition have to protect the country? I’ll use every tool that’s legal and within the Parliamentary toolkit. I have to use every tool we have and the Liberals are of the same mind.”
Although he would not say exactly how many amendments would be introduced—because the House Speaker can rule that some amendments are similar and could be grouped—Mr. Garneau confirmed last week that “there will be a lot, a lot, of stand-alone amendments that will come up from us and Ms. May. There’s a lot. … Once we start voting, you don’t stop.”
When asked what Ms. May would do when it comes to bathroom and food breaks, she said, “I don’t know. I’ll be all right.”
Mr. Garneau said the Liberals will be working on a schedule to facilitate bathroom, food, and even sleep breaks. He clarified that MPs are allowed to go to the bathroom after they’ve voted, but must get back to their seat before the next roll call vote starts.
“You just may miss the odd vote once in awhile because you’ve gone to the bathroom. Or, you take an approach that you’ll miss a number of votes because you’ll decide—if we’re going around the clock—that you need some sleep, so we’ll have worked out a kind of a schedule. And, of course, every vote counts and if too many people have disappeared from the government side when a vote is taken, they could risk losing if we’re all there,” he said.
“It’s a way to show that we’re not at all happy, and, yes, we’ve tried, by all means possible, to get the government to break this bill up because there are so many important different issues being dealt with and it makes no sense to do it the way they’re doing it, so we are using the procedural tools at our disposal,” Mr. Garneau said.
Ms. May said she approached the Liberals with the strategy about four weeks ago, speaking to Liberal interim leader Bob Rae (Toronto Centre, Ont.) and then Mr. Garneau who both agreed with it.
She said at the same time she was trying to get meetings with NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair (Outremont, Que.) and NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley, B.C.).
Mr. Cullen confirmed that he spoke with Ms. May last Tuesday evening.
“We had a good conversation. There’s a large number of amendments that we’ll be moving at the last stage. We have some changes we want to do to the bill in committee and that’s the stage that we’re at,” Mr. Cullen said, pointing out that the party has also been holding its own hearings on the bill.
“We’ve been out across the country engaging hundreds and hundreds of Canadians, thousands upon thousands online. And there’s obviously an appetite in this country to have this bill broken into its parts still and addressed for all of the parts that are in there that ought not to be—employment insurance, ruining environmental protections, on down the line. So, no, we’re open to conversations with all the parties, including the government to try to make this thing better than it is right now,” Mr. Cullen said.
Both Mr. Garneau and Ms. May said that they’re hoping the government will agree to split the bill before voting on amendments start so that MPs will not be subjected to being on House duty for three days straight.
“It would obviously be preferable to have the Conservatives withdraw C-38 as now drafted, remove the sections that have nothing to do with the budget and just vote on the Budget Implementation sections and allow the other sections to be brought forward in the House in the fall for a proper review and go through committee and so on,” Ms. May said, noting that she will also be working with the Bloc Québécois members on their amendments to provisions on employment insurance and old age security.
Ms. May noted that a minimum of five MPs have to stand to force a recorded vote, and that she and the Bloc members will do so for every amendment. She said their strategy is not a filibuster.
“We’re committed to substantive, useful, serious amendments. Nothing about them are a political ploy. They’re all amendments that should be made because if you’re going to change 70 laws, Stephen Harper has opened himself up that C-38, if it’s going to be improved, there will be 100s of amendments, and that’s what we’re producing,” she said.
The government has previously said it would not split the bill. Government House Leader Peter Van Loan (York-Simcoe, Ont.) also told The Hill Times recently that the Conservatives want the bill passed before MPs leave for a summer break, currently scheduled for June 22. The House Finance Committee is currently studying Bill C-38, and a subcommittee is studying the bill’s environmental and resource development provisions.
The bill could come back to the House as early as this week, if the government wants to have it passed and sent to the Senate for final approval before Parliament recesses.
“I don’t know when it’s going to come out of committee at this point, but we’ll be ready,” Mr. Garneau said.
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: Bea Vongdouangchanh
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