The government has served notice it will force a vote in the Senate this week to cut short plans that Liberal Senators had to draw out hearings on contentious sections of the government massive omnibus budget implementation bill.

Liberal and Conservative Senators told The Hill Times Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) wants committee study of the bill completed by July 8.

Government leaders in the Senate warned the Liberals last week they would move a motion as early as Monday to put a deadline on committee hearings into the bill, following a Senate Liberal decision to call more than 30 witnesses for testimony elements of the bill that would, among other things, lower thresholds for environmental assessments and pave the way for the privatization of Atomic Energy Canada.

The motion will torpedo a plan by Liberal members of the Senate National Finance Committee that would have extended hearings into mid-July, with a clause-by-clause review of the bill that might have taken a week to conclude. Senate Liberal resistance to the bill surfaced after the party decided last March it would not force an election over the budget by defeating any of its elements in the Commons, leading to a serious of House votes where Liberal MPs voted against the legislation, but with insufficient numbers to defeat it.

Later, the party also tacitly supported the government on the bill by declining to cooperate with NDP delaying tactics when the summer recessed neared. In the end, the Liberals sided with the government against NDP motions to amend the bill during its final passage.

The head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation criticized both major parties over the way in which the legislation, containing 2,208 clauses, went through Parliament.

“A pox on all their houses,” said federation national director Kevin Gaudet. “The Conservatives should have broken it up, and the Liberals effectively ignored it.”

Liberal Senator Pierrette Ringuette, perhaps the staunchest opponent of the massive bill in the Liberal Senate caucus, did not return a telephone call for an interview.

But Liberal Senator Joan Fraser, the chair of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee, confirmed the government wants the bill reported back from the National Finance Committee by July 8. It would likely be passed and receive royal assent the following week.

Sen. Fraser indirectly expressed criticism of the way the bill has been rushed through both Houses, after only one seven days of debate in the Commons, other than the NDP delay tactics, and just five days of committee hearings.

“It is after all a massive and hugely important series of bills all wrapped into one, talk about not getting the examination that something deserves,” she said.

Liberal Senator Joseph Day, the chair of the Senate National Finance Committee, earlier told The Hill Times that C-9 was “the largest and most comprehensive budget bill that we have seen.”

A motion from Progressive Conservative Senator Lowell Murray to split the bill so separate Senate committees could study major aspects was defeated. Only 39 of the Senate’s 49 Liberals voted on Senator Murray’s motion. They supported it, but were defeated by the 51 Conservatives, including the Speaker, who voted against it.

With Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff (Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Ont.) eager to avoid an election at the moment and unwilling to give Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) an opportunity to claim unelected Senate Liberals are blocking legislation, the result on the Conservative motion to speed up the committee study will likely be similar.

The bill is more than 900 pages and covers government areas ranging from pensions to Export Development offices outside Canada, compliance with consumer regulations over payment cards, money laundering, privatization of mail delivery that Canada post now handles outside Canada and funding for public hearings by the National Energy Board.

One of the most controversial clauses is a section that gives the federal environment minister the authority to determine which projects and developments may be exempted from a federal environmental assessment before they are allowed to go ahead.

Fiscal measures include rules for payments to a Registered Education Savings Plan or a Registered Disability Savings Plan, changes to the definition of taxable Canadian property and new controls over excise stamps for tobacco production.

via Feds to force vote on omnibus budget bill | The Hill Times – Canada’s Politics and Government Newsweekly.