War of words persists over omnibus bill

The Conservatives’ controversial omnibus budget bill is so big, not even the Library of Parliament could digest it all.

At more than 400 pages, Bill C-38 pokes into almost every nook and cranny of Canadian life, from the high end — how the Governor General gets paid — to the low: making sure people can still spend their discontinued pennies.

Skipping a detailed review of the Reducing the Jobs, Growth and Prosperity Act in favour of a pointform precis may have been a time saver on the part of the library’s parliamentary researchers.

But it highlights the crux of the opposition’s argument against a bill that’s now the centre of a parliamentary game of chicken, which will keep MPs in their seats around the clock starting today, sometime around the dinner hour.

The bill didn’t get enough study or debate, they argue. It’s too big. It simply changes too much.

“The list is so broad, this has been a challenge for the opposition. In describing what’s going to happen to the country, which ones do you pick?” said NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen.

“The list is absolutely extraordinary, and extraordinarily bad.”

In a last-ditch effort to pare back the changes the bill will make to more than 70 laws currently on the books, the Opposition threw more than 1,000 amendments at it last week.

Today, MPs will begin what will likely be more than 24 hours of consecutive voting on the 800 amendments that were deemed acceptable by the Speaker.

It’s not just parliamentary mischief, interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae insisted.

“Procedure is just a way we have to do things sometimes because of the battle over the principle,” Rae said.

“This is over a basic principle. It’s about the principle of sustainability. It’s about the principle of democracy and respecting the public. It’s about the principle of living up to your promises and not doing things which go completely contrary to what you said even a year ago.”

The Conservatives call the barrage of amendments a stall tactic