Layton will challenge Harper to recall the house

COURTENAY, BC – New Democrat Leader Jack Layton is challenging the Prime Minister to recall the House of Commons to urgently address omnibus budget legislation if the Senate removes the controversial provisions from the bill during the upcoming final vote.

“We have opposed this Trojan Horse budget from the start. Gutting environmental protections, opening up Canada’s nuclear industry to privatization, and selling out Canada Post have no place in the budget,” said Layton. “If the Liberals are serious about opposing these measures, Mr. Ignatieff should tell his Senators to show up and vote that way and then we’ll deal with the revised budget in the House.”

Yesterday, the Senate Finance committee removed many elements from the budget implementation bill, C-9. The imposition of HST on financial products, the privatization of overseas mail services, provisions for the sale of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), and the gutting of environmental assessments were all removed; these were measures that New Democrats have opposed from the start.

But in order for the amended budget bill to carry any weight, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff will need to order his Senators to show up and vote, something he failed to do with his MPs when similar amendments were proposed by the New Democrats in the House of Commons and at committee.

A vote by the Senate to adopt the stripped-down version of the bill would send the budget back to the House of Commons. If that were to happen, Mr. Layton said he would write to the Prime Minister asking that the House be recalled. He said his caucus would return to Ottawa immediately to address the issue and he hoped other MPs would do the same.

“For months the Liberals did nothing while this controversial and ill-conceived budget sailed through the House of Commons,” said Layton. “Mr. Ignatieff has a chance to redeem himself. New Democrats know how they’ll vote, the question is how will the Liberals vote, and how many will show up.”