OTTAWA - Michael Ignatieff says he won't give the Harper government a blank cheque to get $3 billion in stimulus spending flowing quickly, despite an election threat from the prime minister.
The Liberal leader was adamant Tuesday that he will not support creation of a special economic stimulus fund unless Stephen Harper first agrees to provide some details about how the money will be spent.
"We feel that we can not write a blank cheque on $3 billion worth of stimulus. We have to have some indication of what programs this is going to be spent on," Ignatieff said.
"We want accountability before we vote and we want accountability after we vote. That is, once they spend it, we want them to put up on, say, a website where the heck the money's going. I mean, this is very basic stuff. This is how democracy works."
Ignatieff declined to say what Liberals would do should Harper refuse to comply with their demands, saying he'll cross that bridge when he comes to it.
Last week, Harper warned that opposition refusal to approve creation of the fund would constitute defeat of his minority government.
"These are confidence measures. We are not messing around with this," the prime minister said. "If the opposition doesn't like it, they will find themselves in an election."
Ignatieff scoffed at Harper's threat, calling his sudden return to "aggressive partisanship" in the midst of an economic crisis "ridiculous."
Ignatieff reminded Harper that his ruthless partisanship nearly "drove this Parliament off the cliff" last December, when the three opposition parties forged an agreement to replace the government with a coalition. The prime minister staved off certain defeat only by suspending Parliament.
"We're now in an economic crisis in which he's got to walk back down the hill and talk to me. I am not writing a blank cheque on $3 billion. No Canadian would respect me if I did," Ignatieff said.
"So we've got to talk. Why don't we talk instead of threats and menaces and bluff and all this kind of stuff?"
Opposition parties were surprised last week to find provision for the special $3-billion fund in a spending estimates bill. Harper contends the provision is intended to ensure that some of the $40-billion worth of stimulus funding contained in the January budget will start flowing immediately - as the opposition has demanded.
While Ignatieff said he won't be stampeded into approving the fund without more detail, he simultaneously signalled that he disapproves of any attempts by Liberal senators to amend or delay passage of the main budget implementation bill.
Senator Joseph Day, chair of the Senate finance committee, has said senators won't rubber stamp the bill. He'd like to split the huge bill into two.
And at least one Liberal senator, Newfoundland's George Baker, has vowed to propose an amendment to redress provisions that his province maintains will rob it of some $1.7 billion. If his amendment doesn't pass, Baker intends to vote against the budget bill and he predicts some other Liberal senators will follow suit.
While he said he respects the independence of the Senate, Ignatieff said he'll make it clear to Liberals in the upper house that it would be irresponsible to drag their feet on the budget in the midst of the economic crisis.
"We've got unemployment going through the roof, we got bankruptcies rising, we've got, we've got housing starts stalled," he said.
"The economy is sinking like a stone and, you know, my party wants to be constructive and positive and I'll pass that message in no uncertain terms to the Senate."
However, Ignatieff may find it hard to control independent-minded senators.
Baker, for one, indicated that his leader's wishes won't carry much weight with him.
"I have always voted for what I believed to be right, not what is politically expedient," Baker said.
"I was not told what to do during my 29 years in the House of Commons and I'm not about to be told what to do while in the Senate."
