Nathan Cullen has just finished speaking about what the NDP might be preparing to do next in regards to C-38.
Nathan Cullen has just finished speaking about what the NDP might be preparing to do next in regards to C-38.
The New Democrats have apparently tabled more than 50 amendments to the budget bill at the finance committee. If those amendments are defeated by Conservative MPs on the committee, the bill will return to the House unchanged. At that point, Elizabeth May, as an independent MP who does not sit on the committee, will be allowed to propose substantive amendments. She says she will have approximately 200 such amendments. The Liberals and NDP, as participants in the committee study, will not be allowed to propose substantive amendments, but they will be able to move that individual clauses be deleted. And there are more than 700 clauses in the budget bill.
Mr. Cullen raised the possibility of doubling the number of votes—conceivably from 200 amendments to 400 total amendments and clause deletions. There is some question as to whether the Speaker could group some of those deletions together for a single vote, but, in theory, there remains the possibility of hundreds of votes.
Of course, in the meantime, there is Ms. May’s point of order that will have to be dealt with. More on that later today.
For our complete coverage of the budget implementation act see here.