House of Commons.

• Position: Legislative Reports

Since the House resumed on January 31, 2005 the government has been under continual attack from the opposition as the testimony of witnesses before the Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities ("Gomery Commission") continued to fuel allegations against the Liberal party and government.

Budget

The first budget of this 38th Parliament, presented by Finance Minister Ralph Goodale on February 23, 2005, contained measures corresponding, in some measure, to the concerns of each of the opposition parties; this met with some success, as the Leader of the Opposition publicly opined that there was "nothing in it" sufficient to justify the defeat of the government. The other two opposition parties were more critical of measures they considered to be inadequate to Canada's commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

This was the Liberals' eighth straight balanced budget and it included a promise of $12.8 billion of government expenditure on the military during the next five years, as well as $5 billion over the next five years for national day care. The government committed itself to sharing gas tax revenues with municipalities at the rate of 1.5 cents per litre, or $600 million in 2005, rising to 5 cents a litre or $2 billion annually by 2009-2010. A modest measure of tax relief was also offered in the form of a slight increase in the personal exemption applicable to taxable income. As of the end of April, the budget implementation bill (C-43) was still before the House.

Committees

The minority Parliament has seen an unprecendented, and continually increasing, volume of committee activity since February of this year; committees have met more frequently, travelled more, and, in some cases, been the conduit for challenges to the Government in the form of motions for concurrence in committee reports recommending the resignation of the government.

The ongoing parliamentary inquiry of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, conducted pursuant to the Committee's mandate under Standing Order 108(3)(g)--a study of Chapters 3 (The Sponsorship Program), 4 (Advertising Activities) and 5 (Management of Public Opinion Research) of the November 2003 Report of the Auditor General of Canada), continued to gain momentum when the Committee resumed meeting in February.

The Committee's ninth report (its second on this study), presented in the House on April 7, 2005, contained 29 specific recommendations, among them, "That the government...