Canada’s Members of Parliament remain locked in debate today after failing to agree legislationlast night that would send Canada Post employees back to work and end the current shutdown of its
services.MPs were due to break yesterday for the summer parliamentary recess, but instead were forced todo overnight shifts in the House of Commons debating the bill, which was introduced earlier in theweek. Opposition MPs made lengthy speeches throughout the night, designed to delay passage of thebill, according to the news service CBC.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is understood to have re-entered the debate shortly after 7amlocal time today, after spending the night in his Parliament Hill office, like many other MPsdid.
Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers remain bitterly divided, with no talkscurrently planned to end the stalemate.
According to Canadian protocol, the debate on Parliament Hill can continue until all 103opposition New Democrat Party (NDP) MPs have spoken, at which point they will vote on the bill’ssecond reading and move to committee, where MPs have even more time-delaying tactics at theirdisposal.
There were rumours last night that the NDP and Conservatives had reached a deal to remove thecontroversial salary provisions from the legislation. But Prime Minister Harper insisted that thewage rates set in the bill were fair. “They reflect what we’ve negotiated with federal publicservants,” he said. “The role of the Canadian government is to act in the higher interest of theCanadian population and the Canadian economy, not in the interests of those that are around thetable.”
Opposition NDP party leader Jack Layton said Canada Post had no reason to negotiate when thegovernment was offering a lower salary increase than the corporation’s management.
“The prime minister has rendered collective bargaining pointless in this country,” he said. “It’s a terrible precedent.”
Harper accused the NDP of taking the union’s side. “The government, unlike the NDP, is notbeholden to one of the parties at the table,” he said. “The government represents the widerinterests of the Canadian economy.”
Liberal MPs, who also oppose the legislation, are said to have been instructed not to leave theparliamentary precincts to sleep, and to sleep fully clothed in case they are called back for avote. CBC said the House of Commons will not rise for its summer break until the legislation ispassed.
