Angry in the Great White North

Though I don't know that it can be done, I would like to see the Conservatives stop issuing the report cards demanded by the Liberals:

Mr. Ignatieff insisted on an amendment that would require the government to provide fiscal reports on the budget measures, and new ones that might be needed, three times this year - in late March, June and December - and set confidence votes on them that could see the government defeated.

"We're putting this government on probation," Mr. Ignatieff said.

Now given that the requirement for a report card and the confidence vote that goes with it is in an amendment to the budget, it might not be possible to not deliver these reports.  Here is the amendment offered by the Liberals in return for support for the budget:

That the motion be amended by adding the following:

", on condition that the Government table reports in Parliament no later than five sitting days before the last alloted [sic] day in each of the supply periods ending March 26, 2009, June 23, 2009 and December 10, 2009:

(a) to provide on-going economic and fiscal updates;

(b) to detail the actual implementation of the budget;

(c) to itemize the actual effects of the budget with respect to:

- the protection of the most vulnerable in Canadian society,

- the minimizing of existing job losses,

- the creation of the employment opportunities of tomorrow,

- the provision of economic stimilus [sic] in a manner fair to all regions of Canada, and

- the assurance that the Government's deficit is not a burden to future generations or a detriment to economic recovery; and

(d) to provide details on any adjustments or new measures as may be required to benefit the Canadian economy."

The original motion put forward by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty as straightforward:

That this House approve in general the budgetary policy of the government. (Ways and Means No. 1)

So remove the period after "government" and tack on the rest of that stuff, and you have the motion that approved the January 2009 budget.

So if the Liberals have withdrawn their approval prior to the delivery of the next report card, so does that mean their amendment is no longer enforced?

On a technical level, I expect nothing can change.  That motion with that amendment was passed, so I don't know that anything can be done about it, but I'm not a lawyer or an expert in parliamentary procedure.

But if Michael Ignatieff is announcing that he no longer approves of the "budgetary policy" of the government, then maybe the rest of this stuff can be shelved.

It doesn't matter much anyway.  The next, and final, report card is already on its way, and for various reasons, the associated confidence vote will happen.

Though I'm curious that the motion makes no particular mention of the confidence votes.

Still, I think it would be fun to watch the Liberals sputter in outrage if the government told them to go pound sand.