(Ottawa) MPs are expected to vote for 15 straight hours Thursday and Friday on more than 200 Conservative Party of Canada amendments to the government’s sustainable employment bill.
These amendments constitute what remains of the nearly 20,000 changes proposed by the Conservatives to Bill C-50 last fall during a House of Commons committee.
The Liberals are now claiming that the Conservatives proposed a series of amendments using artificial intelligence (AI) to erase the government’s agenda.
The Conservatives deny this accusation.
There Canada Sustainable Jobs Act outlines how government should help prepare energy workers for the new skills and job requirements that accompany the global economic transition to clean technologies.
Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the bill ensures government accountability and commitment to the people who will be most affected as the world moves away from fossil fuels and towards energy sources renewable.
This requires five-year action plans, regular reporting and the inclusion of union and Indigenous leaders in discussions.
The Liberals argue that their bill is not about killing energy jobs, but rather paving the way for the creation of more renewable energy jobs.
A “radical” restructuring
Conservative spokesperson Shannon Stubbs, however, calls it a model for what she sees as “radical, large-scale economic restructuring” by the Liberals.
She says it will put thousands of energy workers out of work by favoring renewable energy over oil and gas.
The bill passed second reading in October, but the Conservatives voted against it.
When it was referred to the Natural Resources Committee in November for study, the debate descended into chaotic disarray and a lengthy filibuster that, at one point, had members shouting at each other.
The noise was so loud at the final meeting in December that two MPs voted the wrong way on a motion because they couldn’t hear what was being proposed.
The Conservatives proposed 19,600 amendments to the 18-page bill. That number dropped to 200 once the bill left committee and returned to the House of Commons.
Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon called the amendments “robot amendments created by artificial intelligence” on Thursday.
The Liberals have not decided to debate the bill again since December, when they removed it from the agenda to avoid another voting marathon just days after the Conservatives forced 30 straight hours of voting on government spending plans.
MacKinnon said the Conservatives were getting a “time out” but the time was right for the bill to move forward.
“Mr. Poilievre will now have to bring his members here and vote for as long as it takes on hundreds of amendments that survived this robotic amendment process that they claim was undertaken by artificial intelligence, by robot caucus members and robot parliamentarians,” he said.
“This is not the way to make progress for Canadians, it is not the way to make progress on climate change and it is not the way to provide economic opportunities for workers Canadians,” he added.
MacKinnon said the amendments did not make “a single constructive suggestion” for the bill.
“Ridiculous” accusations
At the end of March, during a committee discussion on another subject, Mr.me Stubbs denied that the amendments to Bill C-50 were computer generated.
“Let me just say for the record that these were not generated by AI,” she said at the time.
She said Thursday that the Liberals decided to add the bill to the agenda at the last minute to try to get it passed quickly.
“The “just transition” is a global socialist program, imposed from above, aimed at planning a forced economic transition – and not just energy – away from the sectors and companies that underpin the entire Canadian economy: energy, agriculture, construction, transportation and the manufacturing industry,” she said.
Mr Wilkinson described Mr Wilkinson’s accusations asme Stubbs of “so ridiculous that they almost belie all belief.”
Votes won’t take as long as before since Speaker Greg Fergus decided Thursday to group the amendments into groups that will all be voted on at once.
He cited the decisions of his predecessors to support his decision, including those made by Conservative MP Andrew Scheer when he was speaker in 2012. Mr. Scheer is currently the Conservative leader in the House.
Instead of 207 individual votes, there should be no more than 64. Still, with about 15 minutes each, it could take more than 15 hours to go through them all.
The first of the votes was called shortly before 6 p.m. Thursday.
During the 30-hour marathon in December, voting took place continuously, including overnight, without interruption. But a motion adopted by the Liberals in February prevents this from happening again.
At midnight, a minister can ask to suspend votes until 9 a.m. the next day to protect the health and safety, not only of MPs, but also of Hill and House of Commons staff.