OTTAWA – The federal Conservatives have passed a motion that limits debate and sets out a basic timeline for the marathon voting session for the budget.

The motion was passed Tuesday, the day before MP’s are expected to sit down and tackle over 800 opposition amendments to the omnibus bill in 159 votes.

The NDP’s Nathan Cullen says this another example of the Tories bending the rules.

“They’re abusing our parliament. They’re abusing our basic democratic values. They’re ramming through their agenda. A lot of that agenda they never talked about during the campaign,” said Cullen.

However, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says it is time to deal with this.

“We have had a record amount of study of this particular piece of legislation. It’s been major work before parliament for three months. On this side of the house, we’re prepared to continue getting on with continuing to produce jobs and growth for the Canadian economy,” Harper said.

The opposition has argued that the budget bill touches on 70 pieces of legislation and ramming it through like this is unprecedented and undemocratic.

They want the bill split up so it can be properly studied.

MP’s may have to vote for more than 24-hours straight although they  will have a break before the final vote on the bill, which is expected Monday.