Liberals take page from Conservative playbook with omnibus budget bill

When the Conservatives bundled changes to dozens of laws into an omnibus budget bill in order to ram them through Parliament with little to no debate, the Liberals were beside themselves with anger and disappointment.

In their platform they promised to be different:

“Stephen Harper has also used omnibus bills to prevent Parliament from properly reviewing and debating his proposals. We will change the House of Commons Standing Orders to bring an end to this undemocratic practice.”

But instead they have just introduced an omnibus budget bill of their own. Bill C-15 does many of the exact same things the Liberals used to criticize the Conservatives for:

Conservative Omnibus Bills

Liberal Omnibus Bill C15

• Ran over 100 pages and hundreds of clauses
• 179 pages containing 237 clauses
• Amended dozens of Acts at once
• Amends 35 separate Acts and regulations
• Incorporated entire bills already before the House
• Contains the entirety of Bill C-12 which was already introduced in the House
• Involved responsibilities of multiple Ministers
• Mentions 9 Ministers directly and affects portfolios of at least half a dozen more
• Made retroactive legal changes
• Retroactively repeals an entire Act of Parliament
• Limited debate and scrutiny of significant changes.
• Limits debate and scrutiny of significant changes to Employment Insurance, Veterans’ benefits, seniors income supplements, and more.
• Introduces an entirely new bank bail-in regime that fundamentally reshapes our banking system.

It seems that once again the government that promised openness and accountability is instead opting for the abuses they once criticized.