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The budget is implemented with a law. There's a good reason for that. Parliament passes laws. And the budget is decided by Parliament. So they implement the

by retrac 3y ago

The budget is implemented with a law. There's a good reason for that. Parliament passes laws. And the budget is decided by Parliament. So they implement the budget with a law. The mechanism is fundamental to the Canadian (or UK) political system. The government, the executive branch, must have the confidence of the legislative branch, the authority to rule, which means having the support of a majority of Members of Parliament. The budget is a confidence bill; it must be debated, voted on, and pass. If it does not pass, the government has lost confidence, has no right to rule, and an election must be called. It's conceivable Parliament could implement a law that allows taxation and spending to be discretionary within a range, by the executive -- they in fact do that to give departments some emergency room. A large such allocation happened during the COVID crisis budget. But the overall year-to-year tax levels are debated and argued anyway in Parliament, so they might as well just write it directly into a new law.

throw0101b 3y ago
> If it does not pass, the government has lost confidence, has no right to rule, and an election must be called. Generally an election is called, but theoretically the Crown may ask another political party to see they can get enough votes together to pass legislation. If the current governing party has a majority of seats, then there is obviously no way that any other party can. But if (as now) the currently governing party does not have a majority of seats and are part of a coalition/agreement, then another party could try forming a coalition. Minority governments have been relatively rare in Canada, and so the 'proper' actions on what to do during them aren't part of the cultural zeitgeist, which can lead to drama: * https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/king-byng-affair https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/king-byng-... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King–Byng_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King–Byng_affair * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008–2009_Canadian_parliamentary_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008–2009_Canadian_parliamenta...
mst 3y ago
Hence the existence of "confidence and supply" agreements where a party agrees to a loose coalition whose only pledge is to support the main party therein by voting for budgets (supply) and against no-confidence motions.
boxed 3y ago
> There's a good reason for that. ok? > Parliament passes laws. Ok? So? They also have to go to the bathroom once in a while. They can do more than one thing. > The budget is a confidence bill; it must be debated, voted on, and pass Sure.. but again, why can you put NON-budget stuff in there? Because it's a hack. It's not a budget, it's a law. This is not at all how it works in Sweden. The budget is a budget. It doesn't sneak in laws from the side. We also don't have government shutdowns, because if a new budget doesn't pass the old is in effect a year on. We even had a situation where the opposition got their budget passed instead of the government, and that was annoying as hell to them of course, but we didn't need to call elections.

by retrac 3y ago

throw0101b 3y ago

> If it does not pass, the government has lost confidence, has no right to rule, and an election must be called. Generally an election is called, but theoretically the Crown may ask another political party to see they can get enough votes together to pass legislation. If the current governing party has a majority of seats, then there is obviously no way that any other party can. But if (as now) the currently governing party does not have a majority of seats and are part of a coalition/agreement, then another party could try forming a coalition. Minority governments have been relatively rare in Canada, and so the 'proper' actions on what to do during them aren't part of the cultural zeitgeist, which can lead to drama: * https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/king-byng-affair https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/king-byng-... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King–Byng_affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King–Byng_affair * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008–2009_Canadian_parliamentary_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008–2009_Canadian_parliamenta...

mst 3y ago

Hence the existence of "confidence and supply" agreements where a party agrees to a loose coalition whose only pledge is to support the main party therein by voting for budgets (supply) and against no-confidence motions.

boxed 3y ago

> There's a good reason for that. ok? > Parliament passes laws. Ok? So? They also have to go to the bathroom once in a while. They can do more than one thing. > The budget is a confidence bill; it must be debated, voted on, and pass Sure.. but again, why can you put NON-budget stuff in there? Because it's a hack. It's not a budget, it's a law. This is not at all how it works in Sweden. The budget is a budget. It doesn't sneak in laws from the side. We also don't have government shutdowns, because if a new budget doesn't pass the old is in effect a year on. We even had a situation where the opposition got their budget passed instead of the government, and that was annoying as hell to them of course, but we didn't need to call elections.