CBC reports, “The Conservative government’s massive budget implementation bill cleared its first major legislative hurdle today, passing second reading… The bill will now be sent to the Commons finance committee for more detailed examination. The Conservatives used their majority to give the bill approval in principle by a vote of 149 to 132.”
“But NDP House leader Nathan Cullen…says there will be more procedural ploys in the days ahead as the bill wends its way through committee and, eventually, back to the Commons. Cullen says the objective is to buy as much time as possible to rally public opinion against the bill, which is stuffed with a host of non-budgetary measures including overhauls of environmental assessment, immigration and employment insurance laws. …Once the bill returns to the Commons from the finance committee, the NDP, the Liberals and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May are all vowing to introduce potentially hundreds of amendments that could tie up the bill for days or weeks. …In the meantime, Cullen said the NDP will unveil later this week ‘novel’ ways to engage the public in the debate.”
To respond to the Council of Canadians action alert directed at all Members of Parliament drafted by trade campaigner Stuart Trew – ACTION ALERT: Split up the budget: Environmental and border policy changes need a full debate – please go to http://canadians.org/action/2012/Bill-C38.html. Trew writes, “We need to put pressure on the Conservatives to do the right thing by democratically debating all of these non-budgetary, highly controversial items separately instead of rushing them into place in an anti-democratic omnibus law. …The Harper government is refusing to split up the budget bill, which is expected to pass by June 8 or by June 22 at the latest.” To read our campaign blogs on the budget implementation bill, see http://canadians.org/blog/?s=%22budget+implementation%22.
