Flaherty offers olive branch to NDP in the budget

Junior finance minister Ted Menzies arrived around 1 p.m. ET for an unusual briefing with New Democrat MPs and officials in downtown Ottawa.

An NDP source said they had been called to an “important meeting” by Menzies the night before, which they described as an eleventh-hour sales job.

Government and outside sources had told The Canadian Press that a number of items in the budget should be attractive to the NDP.

Only one party needs to vote with the Conservatives in order for the minority Parliament to survive.

“It looks like the Conservatives are feeling the heat surrounding their ethical problems and now want to make a last-minute pitch for their budget,” said the NDP source.

“If the Conservatives were serious, they wouldn’t have waited until the last minute to request another meeting.”

For the first time, the three opposition parties were to get the documents and briefings separately, in three different boardrooms inside the same building.

Menzies told The Canadian Press he would also meet with the Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois, but spokespeople for those two parties were adamant they had not received notice of any briefing.

“We are not meeting with the Conservatives and we will not meet with the Conservatives today,” said Bloc Quebecois spokeswoman Karine Sauve.

A Conservative source downplayed the presence of Menzies as just a briefing on the content of the budget.

“Once the minister of finance announces the budget it will be crystal clear that the government listened to Canadians and to any good ideas that the opposition parties may have had,” said the source.

“If they do provoke an election it will have nothing to do with the content of the budget but with political opportunism.”

NDP Leader Jack Layton continued to keep people guessing Tuesday morning on whether his party would vote in favour of the budget, or help take the government down by voting against it.

There was no indication from the NDP that they would make their call on the budget on Tuesday.

Several elements of the budget that had been leaked seemed designed to attract the NDP’s support, or at least that of NDP voters.

A government source said the minority Tories will reintroduce the home-energy retrofit program at a cost of $400 million a year.

The government is also prepared to forgive some loans for doctors and nurses who work in rural areas.

Both are key demands made by the New Democrats as the cost for their support of the budget.

Money for volunteer firefighters is also expected in the budget, an item that will also be popular in rural Canada and in some NDP ridings.

It appears the government’s got the money to pay for such vote-winning incentives.

Economists who met with Jim Flaherty earlier this month say the finance minister likely has about $3 billion in extra revenues this year to pay for additional spending.

The Bloc Quebecois has demanded $2.2 billion for Quebec to harmonize its sales tax.

But Flaherty says an agreement on that front won’t be in place any time soon.

Any respite from defeat the Tories may get over the budget might be short-lived.

The Liberals — who say they’ll vote against the economic package — are preparing to bring in a non-confidence motion against the government by week’s end.

That motion would seek to condemn the government for alleged ethical lapses and abuse of power and would also lead to an election if passed in the Commons.

Flaherty offered few budget clues at a made-for-TV fitting of twice-resoled shoes Monday in step with the frugal, stay-the-course messaging of the Conservative government.

The budget will contain some new spending for families and to help create jobs, he said, but the focus remains on eliminating the deficit by the appointed fiscal year 2015-16.

“One of the goals of the budget is to make sure we stay on course, maintain the fiscal track that we set out in the fall update and move back to a balanced budget, and at the same time make some investments to promote economic growth, jobs,” he explained.

The list of spending could include:

> Help for seniors without benefit of a pension, likely through a boost to the guaranteed income supplement.

> A tax credit for parents who enrol their children in artistic activities.

> A two-year extension of a program helping firms buy efficiency-enhancing machinery and equipment.

> Modest measures on pension reform and on financial literacy.

> The sources said veterans will get help to transition into civilian life through a new apprenticeship program in the construction industry.

> And at least two research bodies will get money — $50 million for the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo and $4 million for the Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute.

The remote health-care initiative will forgive up to $40,000 in student loans for new doctors, and $20,000 for nurses, who provide health care in sparsely-populated areas of Canada.

But with the opposition parties pounding on election drums, none of the measures may see the light of day or even get to a vote in the House.

Flaherty has passed an extraordinary five budgets in a row as a minority finance minister. He’s counting on a sixth.

“I hope we vote on it. I hope it’s passed. There are some very good measures in the budget,” Flaherty said.