OTTAWA – Today New Democrat Leader Jack Layton sharply criticized Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff for keeping enough of his MPs out of the House to allow the Harper Conservatives to drive their bloated budget bill through the House of Commons.

“Oil is still flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, yet the Liberals helped the Conservatives adopt a budget bill (C-9) that hands responsibility for environmental assessments to the industry-friendly National Energy Board. Trojan-Horse bills such as this one are the last refuge of a government trying to make unpopular changes.”

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has described the budget as a “dumpster bill” and has said that it is an abuse of power. Still, Mr. Ignatieff has said his party supports it because he doesn’t want to trigger an election.

The budget bill also contains a mix of other unrelated items and resembles bloated U.S. budget bills that often include hundreds of items added during political horse-trading.

Provisions buried in the Harper budget bill include:

• Authorization for the sale of the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. with no debate or public scrutiny;
• A move towards privatization of Canada Post by removing Canada Post’s exclusive right to collect Canadian mail destined for delivery in other countries;
• Approval for the draining of the Employment Insurance Account, which held a surplus of $57 billion in premiums paid in over the past decade by workers and businesses.

“Each of these provisions should have been scrutinized and debated by Parliament. Tagging them onto the budget bill and counting on weak and disorganized Liberals to help force them through the House is a sad comment on how Mr. Harper governs and on Mr. Ignatieff’s failure to act like a real opposition leader,” said Mr. Layton.