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OTTAWA Federal MPs could spend more than 24 hours voting onproposed changes to the government's sweeping budget bill, afterSpeaker Andrew Scheer ruled Monday the House of Commons mustconsider hundreds of proposed motions from opposition parties. The government's Bill C-38, the budget implementation legislation,would rewrite around 70 different laws and could have profoundimpacts on Canadians for decades to come. The budget bill proposes major reforms to Canadian environmentaland fisheries laws, natural resource project approval rules,employment insurance benefits, Old Age Security eligibility, foodsafety and oversight of the country's spy agency, among thehundreds of measures included in the legislation. Opposition parties submitted last week around 1,300 motions andamendments to the budget implementation bill, some of which wereduplicates. The initial list was trimmed to 871 unique motions thatpropose substantial amendments to the bill or ask that most of itsmore than 700 clauses be deleted. On Monday, Scheer grouped many of the motions and amendmentstogether for what will be at least 67 votes possibly as many as159 votes depending on the outcome of each vote and whether theopposition demands a head count on each of them. With the House of Commons holding about six or seven votes an hour,MPs could be looking at 24 hours or more of consecutive voting,possibly beginning Wednesday evening. Voting also could last as little as nine or 10 hours, if oppositionparties are willing to apply the results of some votes to others,although that is unlikely. "Although 871 motions have been placed on the notice paper, itis clearly not intended nor do our rules and practices lendthemselves to the taking of 871 consecutive votes," Scheersaid in his ruling. "Substantive amendments have been grouped so as to allow for aclear expression of opinion on each of the subject areas containedin the bill," he added. "As your Speaker, I am fully aware of the extraordinary natureof the current situation." Green party leader Elizabeth May, who is allowed to proposesubstantial amendments to the bill at report stage (before thirdand final reading) because she doesn't sit on committees, had morethan 300 amendments considered by the Speaker. May said Bill C-38 is "an attack by stealth on 70 differentlaws" and that the government was asking for hundreds ofopposition amendments by stuffing so many sweeping changes into onebill. "It is the natural consequence of the size and scale and scopeof the bill," she said about the motions and amendments."Parliamentary democracy requires that we not operate as a bigrubber stamp." Scheer also rejected Monday a point of order May raised last weekon Bill C-38, asking that the Speaker rule the legislation out oforder because it's improper in its current state. She argued the bill doesn't meet the necessary standards of anomnibus bill, because it does not have a central theme or properlylink the contents of the legislation with the federal budget. The Speaker didn't agree and ruled the bill in order. But hesuggested MPs may want to examine in future the rules surroundingomnibus bills. The Liberals, who initially proposed more than 500 amendments toC-38, want the bill broken into four separate pieces of legislationdealing with major changes to environmental law, the fisheries, OldAge Security and employment insurance. The Grits say they're willing to drop some of their amendments andavoid a marathon voting session if the government is willing tosplit the bill into the four areas they've identified. The party maintains the amendments are necessary to stop thegovernment from abusing democracy and gutting importantenvironmental and social programs. "We all know what the outcome is if (the Conservatives) don'tfall asleep at the switch," Liberal House leader Marc Garneautold reporters Monday on Parliament Hill. "But it sends a very, very strong message to Canadians thatthis government just bulldozes through and is not prepared to dowhat is very reasonable, which is to break out some of these partsof the budget that really are not part of the budget implementationprocess." Twitter.com/jasonfekete. I am an expert from ppbattery.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Lithium Mno2 Battery Manufacturer , China Rechargeable Nimh Batteries, Lifepo4 Rechargeable Battery,and more.
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