MPs passed the half-trillion budget bill by 177 to 146 on Thursday after a five-week filibuster by the Conservatives, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre slams TrudeauConservative leader Pierre Poilievre slams Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. .“We have seen a massive, possibly unprecedented mounting of both public and private debt,” Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre said in the Third Reading debate. Poilievre spoke for three hours and 35 minutes and likened deficit spending to a ticking time bomb..“If someone had a time bomb ticking away under their home, what would they do about it?” Poilievre told the Commons. .“Well, if the person did not know it was there, they would not do anything at all because they would have no reason to respond. Assuming that the person survived its detonation, they would have to scramble to rebuild their life.”.The 2023 budget totals $496.6 billion in spending. According to official estimates, the amount spent on debt interest charges this year is $43.9 billion. The federal government’s last balanced budget was in 2007..“The question is why we have, up until now, not had a full-scale meltdown,” said Poilievre. .“The answer is obvious. It is because we have had such inordinately and artificially low-interest rates.”.“Even today, as rates rise, much of the debt that is in the current stock of the country is still locked in at lower rates, but that is not a permanent phenomenon,” said Poilievre. .“In other words, every passing day, somebody’s mortgage comes up for renewal and the artificially low rate they had up until then renews at a much higher rate. This is the fundamental risk we have.”.Conservative and Bloc Quebecois MPs opposed the budget. Liberal, New Democrat and Green MPs voted for it..An Opposition filibuster tied up the bill for 37 days in the Commons Finance committee and House. .“What happens when you filibuster needlessly? Not for any real point,” Liberal MP Terry Beech (Burnaby North-Seymour, BC), parliamentary secretary for Finance, told a May 26 committee hearing..“The point is quite clear,” said Beech. .“The point is to obstruct the bill and to prevent it from passing or at least to delay it as long as possible.”.“All the Conservatives are doing by continuing this filibuster is proving the fact they intend to do nothing except obstruct for obstruction’s sake,” said Beech. The bill took 667 roll calls to pass the Finance committee..“I am tired of these shenanigans,” New Democrat MP Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, MB) told the Finance committee. .“All the Conservatives are doing right now is pissing away the time we have.”
