Canada's NDP

Skip to main content

June 15th, 2012

Reality check: Ministerial opposition

While Conservatives have been spending the last two months trying to justify why their Trojan Horse budget needs to be so big, the voices of dissent have been growing.

Who doesn’t like this budget?

Former Federal Fisheries Ministers

Hon. John Fraser 1984 – 1985,

Hon. Tom Siddon 1985 – 1990,

Hon. David Anderson 1997 – 1999,

Hon. Herb Dhaliwal 1999 – 2002

"We find it troubling that the government is proposing to amend the Fisheries Act via omnibus budget legislation in a manner that we believe will inevitably reduce and weaken the habitat protection provisions"

Hon. Tom Siddon

"It makes a travesty of the democratic process... To bundle all of this into a budget bill, with all of its other facets, is not becoming of a Conservative government, period"

Ministers

Donna Harpauer, Saskatchewan Minister of Education

"My first thoughts when I saw the number was I suspect it's going to be far short of meeting what we need to fill the [first nations education] gap"

Raymond Bachand, Quebec Minister of Finance

"There are two years left before the renewal of the federal [health] transfers, scheduled to take place April 1, 2014. We must take the time needed to discuss it"

Shirley Bond, B.C. Justice Minister

In the letter to federal Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield

“I urge you to reconsider the decision [to close the Kitsilano Coast Guard base]”

Ironically if they had simply taken some time to consult seniors, students, rural Canadians, Premiers and experts Conservatives could have avoided these criticisms.