Marathon voting session ahead
OTTAWA — MPs are heading into a marathon voting session on the omnibus budget bill - part of the opposition's last-ditch attempt to throw a wrench into the Conservative government's legislation.
NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen told Conservatives to "pack their jammies" for what's likely to be more than 24 hours of consecutive voting on amendments to Bill C-38.
Parliamentarians are expected to start voting late Wednesday on more than 800 amendments tabled by opposition parties last week, which have been grouped together for a maximum of 159 votes in all.
Cullen said Monday that the government could have avoided the voting marathon if they'd split the bill into separate pieces of legislation, as the NDP had originally proposed.
"Rather than have this aroundthe-clock voting, we could have been studying the impacts of the bill," he said.
Cullen also raised a point of privilege in the House that could delay C-38's passing, arguing the government is withholding information about the number of government workers to be laid off as a result of the bill -- information that had been requested by the parliamentary budget officer, Kevin Page.
"Parliamentarians will be voting blind on this legislation," Cullen said.
The Conservatives say the opposition are simply playing procedural games with important legislation.
"We intend to win every vote, and we're going to get this budget passed before the summer," Tory House leader Peter Van Loan said.
The omnibus bill weighs i n at over 420 pages, would adjust 70 separate pieces of legislation, and contains some 700 clauses.
Among the many changes put forward in C-38 are provisions to boost the age of eligibility for old age security, to streamline the environmental review process and to adjust fisheries laws and employment insurance legislation.
On Monday, Speaker Andrew Scheer set out the voting schedule for the hundreds of amendments put forward by opposition parties. He also rejected Green MP Eliza- beth May's bid to get the omnibus bill tossed out. In a point of order earlier this month, May asked for C-38 to be rejected because it's too wide-ranging in its current form.
In his ruling, Scheer said it wasn't his role to reject the bill but left it up to the House to decide whether to set new limits on omnibus legislation.
Scheer is expected to rule on Cullen's point of privilege at a later date.