No new spending for Canada: minister

OTTAWA, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- With an opposition threat of a spring election, Canada's minority Conservative government says there will be no new major spending in March's budget.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said there could be no new major expenditures if the government hopes to meet its goal of eliminating the federal deficit by 2016, Postmedia News said.

Flaherty is to introduce a budget soon after a 2-week recess that ends March 11, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The opposition Liberals are demanding the Conservative government roll back tax cuts to corporations passed in Parliament in 2007 but Prime Minister Stephen Harper was adamant Monday that wasn't going to happen.

Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff vowed all 77 members of his party would vote against the budget if the tax cuts remained and suggested he would try to form a coalition of the separatist Bloc Quebeois and socialist New Democratic Party to force an election. Those two parties hold 83 seats combined, enough to vote non-confidence and force an election.

Meanwhile, Flaherty offered an olive branch to the NDP, saying he would consider its appeal to grant federal pensions to senior citizens who never contributed, such as those who didn't work in order to stay at home and care for children, Postmedia said.