(Ottawa) The official opposition in Ottawa continued Thursday to slow down the process of passing several government bills in an effort to push the Liberal government to remove carbon pricing from all types of home heating. here is the parliamentary holiday break.
The Conservatives achieved this by forcing 135 votes to be held in the House of Commons on Thursday, most of them on the government’s spending budget.
The party argued that its maneuver will force successive votes to be held which could continue until Friday evening and harm the plans the Liberals had until the end of the parliamentary session.
During a press scrum in the corridors of the House of Commons late Thursday afternoon, the House leader of the government, Karina Gould, deplored that the Conservatives had rejected her motion which proposed to adjourn the debate at 11:59 p.m. Thursday so that it resumes at 7 a.m. Friday morning.
“I am eight and a half months pregnant, so I will be there to stand up for my fellow citizens, but the Conservatives had the opportunity to support the health of MPs, but also the health of everyone who works here,” she denounced, noting that employees of the House of Commons will also have to spend many consecutive hours at work.
The votes the Conservatives are seeking are for amounts of just a few dollars — very small amounts when you take into account the billions of dollars in spending that are reserved for different government departments.
In some cases, we are talking about amounts of less than a dollar for departments and organizations such as Indigenous Services Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Conservatives launched their efforts to slow legislative work Wednesday, saying they won’t stop until families, farmers and First Nations are exempt from federal carbon pricing, which they say , increases the cost of living.
Also on Wednesday, Conservative MPs introduced more than 20,000 amendments to an 11-page government bill aimed at creating sustainable jobs as part of the transition to a net-zero emissions economy.
NDP MP Charlie Angus, who sits on the committee where the amendments were proposed, accused the Conservatives of “legislative abuse.”
PHOTO ADRIAN WYLD, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Charlie Angus
“Under the leadership of Pierre Poilievre, we are seeing thug tactics in committees. We see harassment and intimidation,” lamented Mr. Angus on Thursday.
I want to say that what is currently happening in Parliament is a very dangerous trend. A tendency to interrupt the work we are doing.
Charlie Angus, NDP MP
Called to react to Mr. Angus’ comments, a Conservative spokesperson referred to comments made by MP Garnett Genuis in the House during question period on Thursday.
Mr. Genuis had accused the NDP and Liberals of ramming the bill through “under cover of darkness,” calling it an “anti-energy agenda.”
The Liberal government said the Conservative tactics ultimately failed Wednesday because many of the 20,000 amendments were similar in nature, meaning there was no need to vote on each one individually.
Votes were taken on about 200 amendments, a process that lasted eight hours and extended the meeting until 2:30 p.m. Thursday. The bill will move forward.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Conservatives were putting on a show and Liberal MPs were happy to work late.
Abolishing the carbon tax on all types of residential heating is a major issue for Mr. Poilievre, who travels across the country holding rallies promising to eliminate it.
In October, Mr. Trudeau announced that oil heating will be exempt from carbon pricing for three years. He argued that this decision was intended to allow people who use this type of heating to switch to electric heat pumps, but his opponents saw it instead as an attempt to please his Atlantic caucus, where oil is used in addition high proportion.
This debate on the carbon tax comes as the rising cost of living is one of the reasons explaining the Liberals’ decline in the most recent polls.