Next Federal Budget Will Have No Input From Parliament

The leak of a draft report by the Commons finance committee means there will be none of the legally required input from minority MPs.

Forget WikiLeaks, this breach of security could be damaging enough to trigger an election. The Commons finance committee is the forum in which minority parties hammer out compromises with the government over the federal budget. But the leak of a draft report by the committee, allegedly by a low-level Tory staffer, has stopped the process in its tracks and committee members have agreed no final report will be issued. Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he’s receiving informal input from opposition MPs, but he’ll have much more latitude than usual over the budget process. The next budget is seen as the prime opportunity for the opposition to vote down the government should it contain measures the minority parties find unacceptable.