Parliament on Tuesday night passed a $24.8-billion budget bill on an 11th hour deadline. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s costly GST break faced unexpected protests from Liberal appointees in the Senate, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. MPs passed Supplementary Estimates (B), worth $24.8 billion in new spending. "Our sole concern is the well-being of our country,” said Treasury Board President Anita Anand.Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters, “We definitely recognize we are facing challenges.”“I just get up in the morning and try to do my job the best I can,” said Freeland. Spending in the new bill ranged from an additional $970.8 million for public service pay raises and $825.7 million for VIA Rail to $400 million in new foreign aid for Ukraine, $25 million for poultry and egg farmers and $5.5 million for the Toronto International Film Festival.Supplementary Estimates had to pass by midnight last night under House rules. “We have got to get through the Supplementary Estimates,” said Government House Leader Karina Gould..Senate hears Trudeau’s ‘GST Holiday’ saves families less than $5.A second money bill faced unexpected protest from Liberal appointees in the Senate. Bill C-78 An Act Respecting Temporary Cost Of Living Relief would suspend GST charges for 60 days on select goods at a cost of $2.7 billion, by Budget Office estimate.Trudeau-appointed Sen. Colin Deacon opposed the bill as onerous for retailers and “unserious” in its application.“We are generally deferential to spending bills,” he said, but called C-78 “ill-considered, decidedly unserious policy.”“I know it’s a money bill and it’s the government’s prerogative to spend money however they like,” said Deacon.“However C-78 has demonstrated such profound disregard for small businesses, such profound disregard for where we find ourselves today, that I cannot support it.”Sen. Eric Forest, another Liberal appointee, questioned the logic behind cabinet’s selection of goods to be designated GST free from December 14 to February 15.“A 5% tax holiday for two months on a limited list of items is not a structural measure likely to have a significant impact on households,” he said.“In my humble opinion public funds should be used to support the most economically vulnerable Canadians. I would have liked to see better targeted and more structural measures to help them.”.GST pause costs 70% more than Freeland bargained for.GST-free items under Bill C-78 include beer and wine, restaurant meals, store-bought pastries, cakes and pies, soda pop, video consoles, books and printed newspapers, Christmas trees “natural or artificial,” Cracker Jack, diapers, children’s shoes and ice cream. Cabinet to date has not detailed what criteria were used to select items to include in the tax holiday.Conservative-appointed Sen. Percy Downe protested Liberal caucus members were promoting the GST holiday though parliament hadn’t passed the bill.“Liberal MPs are currently running ads indicating we’ll have a tax break on December 14 before this chamber actually voted,” said Downe.“If that’s the case, are we in a bit of a charade here? People are going to get up with good intentions, make speeches, remarks. It’s all a sham.”Senators last night adjourned Third Reading debate on the bill amid protests some Liberal appointees would abstain on the final vote.“People are not asking us to abstain,” said Sen. Claude Carignan, a Conservative appointee and chair of the Senate National Finance Committee.“We were not appointed to abstain. We were appointed to take positions that are sometimes difficult but positions nonetheless.”The senate has not defeated a government bill in 28 years. The last cabinet measure to fail was a 1996 bill proposing a liability shield for managers of Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
