Conservative budget passes final Commons vote

NDP and Bloc Quebecois members voted against the budget en masse.

The massive, 900-page piece of legislation now goes to the chamber of sober second thought, where Independent and Liberal senators are promising to give it a rougher ride.

Senator Lowell Murray, a Progressive Conservative, says he’ll serve notice of a motion in the Senate on Wednesday designed to split the budget bill and send it back to the Commons.

Murray is among a number of critics — including Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff — who argue the budget implementation legislation is an end-run around Parliament because it includes a host of controversial, non-budgetary items.

The budget bill amends some five dozen laws, including giving the environment minister the power to bypass environmental assessments on major projects.

“Oil is still flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, yet the Liberals helped the Conservatives adopt a budget bill that hands responsibility for environmental assessments to the industry-friendly National Energy Board,” NDP Leader Jack Layton said in a release immediately following the vote.

“Trojan-horse bills such as this one are the last refuge of a government trying to make unpopular changes.”

The legislation also paves the way for the privatization of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and alters the Canada Post monopoly on overseas mailing.

The Canada Post changes were introduced by the Tories as stand-alone bills in both 2008 and 2009, only to die on the order paper.

Bloc MP Christiane Gagnon accused the prime minister of “short-circuiting debates and … undermining the role and power of the public’s representatives.”

Ignatieff, too, recently called it a “dumpster bill” and “an abuse of power.” But his party wasn’t prepared to defeat or change the legislation for fear of causing a federal election, which they’re not prepared to fight and say Canadians don’t want.

Only 47 of 77 Liberals, led by Ignatieff, were in the House for the final budget vote. The last three Conservative budgets have survived courtesy of the Liberal party, while the Bloc Quebecois supported the first two under Harper in 2006 and 2007.

Liberal Senator Pierrette Ringuette promised Tuesday to fight the omnibus legislation, regardless of what her elected Liberal caucus-mates did in the House of Commons.

“The Liberal senators are not rubber-stampers of the leadership,” Ringuette said in an interview.

“We have a mandate to do sober second review of legislation for Canadians, and we will fulfil our responsibility.”

She called the bill “an affront to parliamentary responsibility, accountability and transparency.”

Conservative Senator Hugh Segal acknowledged that more focused legislation is the goal, but he still supports the budget.

“We would all prefer narrow focus bills that do not connect broadly with discrete policies in various areas,” Segal said in an email.

“But budget and related policies are seminal and broadly linked. So, in general, I have no serious problem with it and look forward to voting for it.”

Murray, the Progressive Conservative, acknowledged the current Senate configuration will make splitting the bill difficult.

Following the recent retirement of Liberal Senator Michael Pitfield there will soon be 52 Conservatives in the upper chamber against 48 Liberals and four Independents.

A 49th Liberal senator, Raymond Lavigne, is fighting criminal charges related to his Senate budget and has been stripped of his voting rights.

“I understand it’s not the kind of thing that’s sending people into the streets,” Murray said of his battle for due process in parliamentary legislation.

“But if they think about it, it’s this impulse to do things without proper scrutiny, to push everything through and to short-circuit Parliament.

“This is what’s giving us fake lakes and a billion dollars spent on G8-G20 security — it’s the lack of, or abuse of, due process.”

Layton blasted the Harper government but saved almost as much criticism for the official Opposition.

“Each of these provisions should have been scrutinized and debated by Parliament,” said the NDP leader.

“Tagging them onto the budget bill and counting on weak and disorganized Liberals to help force them through the House is a sad comment on how Mr. Harper governs and on Mr. Ignatieff’s failure to act like a real opposition leader.”