The Cabinet's budget bill cleared the Commons Finance committee after a 29-day Conservative filibuster. The omnibus bill involved 667 roll call votes and amended 51 Acts of Parliament..In a final clause-by-clause review of Bill C-47 the Budget Implementation Act, the Finance committee voted until midnight Monday, then resumed at 9:04 a.m. EST on Tuesday and remained in continuous session with brief breaks to attend the washroom and Question Period. The committee finished its work on the bill at 7:31 p.m. EST..“It’s been a long couple of days,” said Conservative MP Philip Lawrence (Northumberland-Peterborough South, ON). .“We’re in a bit of a low-trust environment.”.“I think we’re good, but I do like my coffee,” said Liberal MP Peter Fonseca (Mississauga East-Cooksville, ON), chair of the Finance committee..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Clerks took turns attending the committee to conduct roll call votes on 681 clauses. .Conservative MPs requested that some clauses be read slowly when being recorded into the official record..“Bill C-47 amends several Acts including the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act. The amendment seeks to remove paragraphs 6.8 to 6.10 of the Act for the calculation of fiscal stabilization – ” said Fonseca..“Mr. Chair, point of order.,” said Lawrence..“– that may be paid – ” said Fonseca..“Point of order,” said Lawrence..“Point of order?” said Fonseca..“Could you please slow down for the sake of the interpreters as well as myself? You’re speed reading through that,” said Lawrence..“I hope everybody does have the bill in front of them, but I will slow down,” said Fonseca..Bill C-47 runs to 430 pages. Omnibus budget bills dating from their introduction by the previous Conservative cabinet totalled 452 pages in 2012 and 478 pages in 2014. Parliament in 2018 passed two separate Liberal budget bills, C-74 and C-86, totalling 1,411 pages, a record..Bloc Québécois MP Kristina Michaud (Avignon-La Mitis, QC) expressed her opinion that the 2023 bill was difficult to handle due to its complexity..“This bill is huge, I have to say,” said Michaud. .“The government has thrown a lot in there.”.In 2015, the New Democrats introduced a private bill called C-654, also known as "An Act to Amend the Parliament of Canada Act to restrict omnibus legislation." The purpose of this bill was to impose limitations on the use of omnibus legislation. However, the bill expired before being debated..“If we have 5,000 clauses with the Liberals bulldozing through this legislation, we may be looking at nine seconds per consideration of each sub-clause,” New Democrat MP Peter Julian (New Westminster-Burnaby, BC) told a 2018 Finance committee hearing. .“This is absolutely ridiculous.”.“There is far too much dumped into this one piece of legislation for proper scrutiny,” said Julian. .“The idea that omnibus legislation is acceptable is simply wrong.”
