Binky
05-20-2005, 09:53 AM
CTV.ca News Staff
Now that the Liberals have won a crucial confidence vote on the budget, their minority government will live to fight another day.
Unless the opposition wins a confidence vote in the meantime, Parliament will continue until June 23. The House will be in recess during the week of May 23-27.
Here are the two budget implementation bills that were the object of Thursday's vote, along with some other high-profile bills left for Parliament to deal with.
Bill C-43
This was the main piece of budget implementation legislation, covering the budget tabled on Feb. 23. The bill contains funding for such major programs as:
The Atlantic Accord;
Gas tax revenues for cities;
Child care;
Environment; and
Tax cuts for seniors.
The Tories voted for passage of this bill, in part because there was tremendous political pressure on their two Newfoundland MPs to support it because of the Atlantic Accord.
Bill C-48
This amendment to the budget that resulted from a deal negotiated between the Liberals and NDP to boost spending on NDP priorities by $4.6 billion and defer corporate tax cuts. In exchange, the NDP pledged to support the main budget.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper characterized the bill as a "deal with the devil." His party voted against it, as did the Bloc Quebecois and independent David Kilgour. The Liberals, NDP and independents Carolyn Parrish and Chuck Cadman voted for C-48.
Jack Layton told CTV Newsnet after Thursday's vote he wants the Liberals to expedite passage of the full budget.
Bill C-38 -- Same-sex marriage
From the time this bill was introduced back in February, this has been a piece of legislation the Tories wanted to see stopped on the Parliamentary floor.
But, while the Tories have been against same-sex marriage, the Bloc Quebecois caucus has generally supported it, as have the NDP and most of the Liberal caucus.
And the legislation has been making its way through the Commons, although the Tories have fought its progress.
On May 4 same-sex marriage passed its second reading with a vote of 164-132. Right now a legislative committee is studying the bill.
Same-sex marriage advocates weren't necessarily convinced losing the bill would mean losing the battle overall.
In the final days before the budget vote, Bruce Walker, a spokesman for Canadians for Equal Marriage, told CTV.ca that, in some ways, "the bill's not going to make much difference in the final analysis."
Walker pointed to the many legal gains already made by gays and lesbians in courts across the land -- and that many courts have already found the traditional definition of marriage violates the equality rights of gays and lesbians under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Other high-profile bills
The following pieces of legislation will now push ahead in Parliament:
Bill C-17: Decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana and strengthening penalties for running grow-ops;
Bill C-11: Protecting whistle-blowing civil servants;
Bill C-2: Toughened child pornography legislation;
Bill C-13: Allow judges to order the taking of DNA samples from people convicted of crimes like child pornography and Internet luring;
Bill C-49: Aimed at stopping trafficking in human beings; and
Bill C-15: Designed to protect migrating birds by targeting maritime polluters
A full list of bills before Parliament can be found at the LEGISInfo website.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1116544320003_22
Now that the Liberals have won a crucial confidence vote on the budget, their minority government will live to fight another day.
Unless the opposition wins a confidence vote in the meantime, Parliament will continue until June 23. The House will be in recess during the week of May 23-27.
Here are the two budget implementation bills that were the object of Thursday's vote, along with some other high-profile bills left for Parliament to deal with.
Bill C-43
This was the main piece of budget implementation legislation, covering the budget tabled on Feb. 23. The bill contains funding for such major programs as:
The Atlantic Accord;
Gas tax revenues for cities;
Child care;
Environment; and
Tax cuts for seniors.
The Tories voted for passage of this bill, in part because there was tremendous political pressure on their two Newfoundland MPs to support it because of the Atlantic Accord.
Bill C-48
This amendment to the budget that resulted from a deal negotiated between the Liberals and NDP to boost spending on NDP priorities by $4.6 billion and defer corporate tax cuts. In exchange, the NDP pledged to support the main budget.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper characterized the bill as a "deal with the devil." His party voted against it, as did the Bloc Quebecois and independent David Kilgour. The Liberals, NDP and independents Carolyn Parrish and Chuck Cadman voted for C-48.
Jack Layton told CTV Newsnet after Thursday's vote he wants the Liberals to expedite passage of the full budget.
Bill C-38 -- Same-sex marriage
From the time this bill was introduced back in February, this has been a piece of legislation the Tories wanted to see stopped on the Parliamentary floor.
But, while the Tories have been against same-sex marriage, the Bloc Quebecois caucus has generally supported it, as have the NDP and most of the Liberal caucus.
And the legislation has been making its way through the Commons, although the Tories have fought its progress.
On May 4 same-sex marriage passed its second reading with a vote of 164-132. Right now a legislative committee is studying the bill.
Same-sex marriage advocates weren't necessarily convinced losing the bill would mean losing the battle overall.
In the final days before the budget vote, Bruce Walker, a spokesman for Canadians for Equal Marriage, told CTV.ca that, in some ways, "the bill's not going to make much difference in the final analysis."
Walker pointed to the many legal gains already made by gays and lesbians in courts across the land -- and that many courts have already found the traditional definition of marriage violates the equality rights of gays and lesbians under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Other high-profile bills
The following pieces of legislation will now push ahead in Parliament:
Bill C-17: Decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana and strengthening penalties for running grow-ops;
Bill C-11: Protecting whistle-blowing civil servants;
Bill C-2: Toughened child pornography legislation;
Bill C-13: Allow judges to order the taking of DNA samples from people convicted of crimes like child pornography and Internet luring;
Bill C-49: Aimed at stopping trafficking in human beings; and
Bill C-15: Designed to protect migrating birds by targeting maritime polluters
A full list of bills before Parliament can be found at the LEGISInfo website.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1116544320003_22