OTTAWA – MPs were still going Friday morning after an all-night debate filled of periods of both bluster and calm as the parties argued over whether 50,000 locked-out Canada Post workers should be legislated back to work to kick-start the country’s mail service.
And there’s no telling just yet when the debate will end.
NDP members spent the night in the House of Commons attempting to filibuster the government’s proposed back-to-work legislation, which would end a labour dispute that has now disrupted Canadians’ mail service for more than a week.
The overnight debate in the House saw an appearance by Prime Minister Stephen Harper around midnight and other cabinet members at various times.
MPs took shifts, spelling each other for the marathon session.
Green Party leader Elizabeth May spent the entire night, before leaving early Friday morning.
As the lone member of her party in the House, May has said she’ll be staying put for the entirety of the debate except for "the minimum amount that one needs to occasionally freshen up."
Canada Post locked out its employees on June 14, after the Canadian Union of Postal Workers conducted 12 days of rotating strikes.
The Crown corporation blamed their two weeks of rotating strikes for estimated losses of $100 million.
On Friday morning, a spokeswoman for Canada Post confirmed negotiations had yet to restart between the postal service and its employees.
Anick Losier said the two sides were still very far apart in negotiations.
Once the back-to-work legislation is voted on, the bill is expected to pass into law with the Conservative majority. And once that happens, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt – who said she is open to changing parts of the legislation – expects postal workers to be back on the job within 24 hours.
The main sticking point over Bill C-6 is the wage settlements the federal government has written into its bill.
The salaries the federal government included are lower than those management had offered earlier this month during negotiations.
Harper has said the wages are fair, and are "rates this government agreed to with its other public-service workers."
Opposition MPs have condemned the bill as a whole, saying it undermines the right to collective bargaining.
"We think that that’s a particularly bad faith and unfair approach to bargaining," NDP leader Jack Layton said. "We will use all of the tools that are available to us in the parliamentary tool kit . . . to have the government take (that) off their plan."
The NDP will be introducing amendments to the bill, all of which will be debated and voted on – a process that can take hours, depending how many are introduced.
New Democrat MP Paul Dewar said party members will not be introducing a record-breaking number of amendments.
In 1999, when the Reform party staged a 42-hour filibuster in opposition to the government’s passage of the Nisga’a treaty – an agreement to give British Columbia natives control over land in dispute – they introduced 471 amendments.
While the debate could take weeks, there is some speculation the business will be settled sooner.
Bloc MP Louis Plamondon speculated the debate likely would be wrapped up by Saturday, since workers already have lost a week of salary, and it would not be in Parliament’s interest to make them lose more.
But others have suggested it will last longer.
"This debate is ongoing until no one else wants to speak, and that could take hours, or days or potentially weeks, depending on how long the opposition parties or the government wish to carry on the debate," Liberal MP Ralph Goodale said, adding he’ll sleep in his office if necessary.
Typically, a bill goes through three readings and is studied by a committee before being voted on.
Bill C-6, however, will go through the House of Commons in one sitting, meaning MPs will stay in the chamber until the bill is "disposed of," or voted on.
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