OTTAWA – The Harper government successfully defeated hundreds of attempts to amend its massive budget bill, ending an over 22-hour marathon voting session in the Commons, but it’s the Opposition parties claiming victory.

Bill C-38, the sprawling Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act, now goes to third and final reading in the Commons on Monday.

The bill changes literally dozens of significant statutes — everything from environmental protection to old age security, employment insurance, government contracting and cross-border policing.

The legislation should clear the Conservative-dominated Senate by the end of next week.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said what’s happened over the last couple of days has been a battle between two different visions of the country.

But NDP House leader Nathan Cullen said the marathon voting session and procedural battle, the first of its kind in the Commons in at least a decade, will prove a watershed moment in the life of the Harper government.

Liberal interim Leader Bob Rae said the legislation that “had everything in it but the kitchen sink,” will be long remembered by the public as each change is felt.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said it was a sad day.

She said the bill takes a sledgehammer to decades of environmental law and protection.

MPs started to vote on the over 800 Opposition-proposed amendments to the Conservatives’ controversial omnibus budget bill starting shortly before midnight Wednesday.

The amendments, as stated by Cullen, are designed to challenge the government’s massive budget bill that he points out will change up to 70 Canadian laws in one swoop.

At over 400 pages, the controversial budget bill amends are those relating to environmental assessments, old age security and employment insurance. While the Opposition argued that such a broad-ranging bill demands more study, the Conservatives said enough time has already been spent.
opposition benches.

The Opposition had introduced more than 1,000 amendments to the bill, but on Monday, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Andrew Scheer, gave the green light to nearly 850 amendments.

However, Scheer grouped many of the amendments together for voting and since some would cancel out others, there could be between 67 and 159 votes altogether.

Many amendments sought to outright delete elements of the bill that the Opposition feels require more scrutiny, such as major changes to environmental assessment, employment insurance and old age security.

Van Loan accused the Opposition of playing political games and delaying laws needed to stimulate the economy.

“This is an important measure for job creation and economic growth at a time when the global economy continues to be fragile,” he said.

The New Democrats said they’re doing their job standing up against a government running roughshod over the democratic process.

Cullen said this all could have been avoided if the government agreed to split up the bill so they could deal with things like environmental laws and old age security separately.

“We could have actually been studying the impacts of the bill and letting Canadians know exactly what was about to happen to them and to our country,” said Cullen.

May said the long process was necessary because the opposition cannot just rubber-stamp government policy

“If Mr. Harper wants to have bills that pass quickly he should not, illegitimately, put 70 pieces of legislation in one bill,” May said.