Cabinet seeks to break a month-long filibuster that has tied up Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s omnibus budget bill in the Commons finance committee. One Liberal MP called it “arbitrary filibustering” to upset cabinet’s calendar.

“What happens when you filibuster needlessly? Not for any real point,” said Liberal MP Terry Beech (Burnaby North-Seymour, B.C.), parliamentary secretary for finance. “The point is quite clear. The point is to obstruct the bill and to prevent it from passing or at least to delay it as long as possible.”

“All the Conservatives are doing by continuing this filibuster is proving the fact they intend to do nothing except obstruct for obstruction’s sake,” said MP Beech. He served notice of a motion that the finance committee limit Conservatives to a maximum 15 additional minutes of debate on Bill C-47 the Budget Implementation Act.

Conservative MP Rick Perkins (South Shore-St. Margarets, N.S.) denied gamesmanship and called C-47 a far-reaching and costly bill that must be thoroughly studied. Minister Freeland “built up a level of distrust in this committee and in the House,” said Perkins.

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