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June 7th, 2013

Budget bill must benefit Canadians

OTTAWA – NDP Finance critic Peggy Nash (Parkdale–High Park) tabled the following reasoned amendment to Bill C-60 in the House of Commons today to mitigate its negative impact on Canadians:

“That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word ‘that’ and substituting the following:

this House decline to give third reading to Bill C-60, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 21, 2013 and other measures, because it (a) weakens Canadians' confidence in the work of Parliament, decreases transparency and erodes democratic process by amending 49 different pieces of legislation, many of which are not related to budgetary measures; (b) raises taxes on Canadians by introducing tax hikes on credit unions and small businesses; (c) gives the Treasury Board sweeping powers to interfere in collective bargaining and impose employment conditions on non-union employees; (d) amends the Investment Canada Act to triple review thresholds and dramatically reduces the number of foreign takeovers subject to review; (e) proposes an inadequate band-aid fix for the flawed approach to labour market opinions in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program; (f) proposes to increase fees for visitor visas for friends and family coming to visit Canada; and (g) fails to provide substantive measures to create good Canadian jobs and stimulate meaningful long-term growth and recovery.