Oil Moratorium bill moves through Parliament with a return to Senate its next destination

Nathan Cullen has been given his parting gift of sorts as he prepares to exit the House of Commons, with Bill C -48 making its way successfully through its final vote on Tuesday, the approving votes bringing a 104 vote margin of success for his long fought battle to ban oil tankers off the North Coast.

This is a strange, circular moment for me. When we came into this place, we were fighting to protect the north coast. As this parliamentary session winds down and my colleagues turn their eyes toward the next election, those who are re-offering, I think sometimes life offers us a little bit of a bookend to a story, that where one starts ends up being where one finishes. -- Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen on Bill C-48 on Tuesday evening

The Vote  recorded at 190-86 brings the House of Commons work on the Bill to an end, with the bill navigating some choppy waters of its own along the way to the final vote of Tuesday evening.

The bill sparked some further debate prior to the vote, with Marc Garneau, the Minister of Transport providing the Federal government's response to the opposition claims of the Bill being nothing more than symbolism.

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The Bill and its roll calls of the vote can be reviewed here  starting at the 1835 mark.

Mr. Cullen had his say later on in the evening, first as a response to Conservative opposition and then with a much wider testimony of support for the bill, the larger portion of his presentation recalling the many challenges along the way to bring the Bill to the House for its final vote.

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You can review the remainder of his testimony from the link previous, starting at the 1940 mark.

The final passage of the Oil Moratorium legislation was overshadowed and to be honest, mostly lost in the tumult over the passage of the Trans Mountain Pipeline bill earlier in the day.

But for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP, the passage was one worth celebrating with Mr. Cullen taking to his social media feeds to share the results shortly after the votes came in.

Bill C-48 had returned to the Commons following a near death experience in the Senate, which had seen a number of members of the Upper Chamber look to have it quashed, it was eventually returned to the House with some suggested changes.

The Senate will get one chance to weigh in on the topic, with an opportunity to adopt the legislation as the House has delivered it, or to offer some push back and call for more changes. Though most political observers suggest that as an unlikely prospect.

The MP's are in a marathon mad dash to pass as much of their outstanding legislation of the last year in the next few days before the House of Commons break for the summer and in effect start off the 2019 Fall election campaign.

There is a chance that they will be called back to work over the summer, with ratification of the new NAFTA deal one issue that could interrupt their vacation plans.

Mr. Cullen is stepping down from office at the end of this session, having been elected to Parliament for fourteen years, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Bill marks one of his most advocated for of bills.

You can review more notes on Mr. Cullen's work in Parliament and events from Ottawa that affect Skeena-Bulkley Valley from our archive page here.

A wider overview of the political theatre that is Ottawa can be explored on our D'Arcy McGee blog.