Carney government faces impasse over budget bill as MPs head into final week before break

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne, left, holds up the budget book with Prime Minister Mark Carney in Ottawa last month.

The Liberal government’s budget bill is stuck in the opening round of debate with just one week to go before an increasingly acrimonious minority Parliament breaks for the holidays.

As a result, it is highly unlikely that the bill will be studied in committee – let alone approved into law – this year.

Liberal MP Karina Gould, the chair of the House of Commons finance committee, said the lack of a formal partner for the government in the House of Commons is proving to be difficult.

“It’s a really, really challenging configuration of a minority Parliament, and so there’s a bit of a stalemate in terms of how to move that forward,” she said in an interview Fr