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Liberals promise Quebec's 2015 budget, tabled today, will help to "better deliver services at a better price," with balanced books and no tax hike.

But it's a plan that will only work if the economy continues to grow and the government can continue its tight control over public spending.

Spending cuts are at the heart of the $100-billion budget delivered by Finance MinisterCarlosLeitaothis afternoon in the National Assembly.

The reduction in spending won't come from direct program slashing, but rather in anticipated and aggressive belt-tightening in some of the government's largest departments: health, social services and education.

"This control of spending, confirmed in recent months, is the result of a collective effortof allQuebecers," saidLeitao.

"The return to a balanced budget is not the end. Quite the opposite, in fact, it is a point of departure and gives new momentum to Quebec."

For months, the provincial government has pushed forward with its zero deficit mission by targeting what it called inefficiencies in the way the government administers and delivers services, and handles other expenses including the cost of the public sector payroll.

Today,Quebecerslearned just what that will look like financially.

Overall, spending growth will be capped at 1.5 per cent in 2015-16, a low ceiling the likes of which hasnt been seen since LucienBouchardwas in power in 1998.

Education will see an increase of only 0.2 per cent, which, after inflation is factored in, essentially amounts to a cut.

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Quebec Liberals unveil tight on spending budget

OTTAWA The Liberals might be reluctantly on board to support the Conservatives' controversial anti-terror bill, C-51, but they still want some changes made.

A pair of Liberal MPs released a list of 10 changes their party want to see before the bill, currently before a Commons committee, is made law.

Most of those amendments deal with the concerns being raised by critics, who say Bill C-51 compromises privacy and allows too much freedom to Canada's spy network without oversight.

"There's no question that Canadians have concerns about this bill, and that is why we are presenting these 10 amendments," Liberal public safety critic Wayne Easter said.

Easter, a former solicitor general, said the amendments do not throw up roadblocks to the bill, but simply raise the party's biggest concerns, and echo what Liberals have heard from the majority of witnesses at committee.

The main amendment would put in place a parliamentary oversight committee, similar to those in allied countries.

The previous Liberal government proposed something similar in 2005 but didn't get to pass it before they were defeated.

Another amendment would force Parliament to review the law in three years to judge its effectiveness.

In question period Thursday, NDP MP Rosane Dore Lefebvre said her party was tabling a motion to expand the debate on Bill C-51, and asked if the Conservative government would support that motion.

Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney replied that the NDP was "well behind the ball" in the fight against terrorism and claimed the government was seeing great support for the bill.

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Liberals want amendments to anti-terror bill

QMI Agency Mar 26, 2015

, Last Updated: 6:04 PM ET

QUEBEC CITY Quebec Liberals cut $729 million in spending to table the province's first balanced budget in six years on Thursday.

Finance minister Carlos Leitao didn't spare health or education, whose modest budgetary increases won't keep pace with inflation.

Quebec is saddled under a $200-billion debt that has only grown during six straight years in the red.

Leitao cautioned that the axe will fall again next year.

"A balanced budget doesn't happen in one night," he told the legislature.

Quebec will have to find another $853 million in savings next year to avoid falling back into the red.

Large rallies were scheduled for downtown Montreal as well as the provincial legislature on Thursday evening to protest the anticipated spending cuts, especially to education. More than 60,000 students have been on strike since Monday to protest the cuts.

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Quebec Liberals cut spending, table first balanced budget in six years

One of the responses we inevitably receive at Salon Dot Com after writing columns about how Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz are self-defeating tactical morons is that were threatened by them. They scare us and so we get defensive, and write columns!

This isnt really the way it works. Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz would certainly be frightening if they were in actual positions of power. But the whole points of columns like this and this and this is that Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton wont ever attain higher positions of power, because theyre possessed by self-aggrandizing instincts that backfire against whatever cause theyre hoping to advance. The penchant for marginalization among Real Conservatives is one of the few things liberalism has going for itself these days.

The people who should frighten liberals are the more mild-mannered ones, the non-grandstanders, the ones who are legitimately interested in building support for damaging legislation. The conservatives who arent tactical morons.

The Republican who Scares Liberals Most shouldnt be Ted Cruz or Tom Cotton. It should be Senator Bob Corker.

Yes, Bob Corker. Bob Corker! But isnt Bob Corker a RINO squish, you say? Its true that hes not a fan of Tea Party budget brinksmanship schemes and doesnt give salacious quotes to the press. He definitely talks to the press, a lot, but mostly about process, how a certain piece of legislation is moving along, and other unsexy, workmanlike things.

Thats because Bob Corker actually works on legislation, unlike Tom Cotton or Ted Cruz or Steve King or Louie Gohmert. One of the critical pieces of legislation that hes been working on this year is the bill that would require congressional review of an international diplomatic deal regarding Irans nuclear program. The Obama administration is seriously concerned about this bill, because if its up to the Republican Congress to sign off on an Iran deal, then there will not be an Iran deal.

Corker did not sign onto Tom Cottons infamous letter to Iran because he is smart and games things out in his head before jumping at every shiny article of argle-bargle. He had the foresight not that it took a whole lot of foresight! to recognize that the letter would simply send gettable Democratic votes scurrying away from his congressional review legislation, a Trojan horse that had been heading towards veto-proof majority. It may yet reach that veto-proof majority, but, as Corker explains in an excellent interview with Yahoo! News, the letter combined with the Netanyahu speech and Mitch McConnells aggressive move to fast-track sanctions legislation created an atmosphere of drama that severely set back the process.

You have legislation requiring congressional review and a vote on approving any Iran nuclear deal, as well as a 60-day period in which the president would not be able to ease U.S. sanctions. Can you get a veto-proof majority for it?

I dont know. I think we have a really good chance. Weve been patient, to let some of the drama (subside) thats certainly had an effect. I mean, theres no question that boom, boom, boom. I had a senator come up to me (and say), Third strike, just Im sorry, third strike. And no doubt here were numbers of people who were easily gettable, actually in very high positions on their side of the aisle, easily gettable. And I do think the White House has been able to use a narrative of, you know, Look, this is all about embarrassing the president. And so weve been patient to let some of the drama thats occurred get into the rearview mirror a little bit more fully.

If Bob Corkers approach prevailed, instead of Ted Cruzs or Tom Cottons, things would be a lot more threatening for liberals. There wouldnt be this boom, boom, boom drama that sends gettable Democrats back to their senses.Congress may have already overridden a presidential veto and passed into law a bill that would have severely hampered the Obama administrations ability to secure a diplomatic deal with Iran if Corker had just been allowed to do his work and REAL CONSERVATIVES hadnt gotten in the way. This is just one example. Consider all the cuts to Medicare and Social Security that President Obama would have signed off on in his first-term quest for a Grand Bargain if Tea Partiers hadnt revolted against some incredibly modest tax increases.

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Liberals real nightmare: Why Bob Corker not Ted Cruz should frighten you

EXCLUSIVE

Malcolm Turnbull with Mike Baird at Coogee Beach last year. Photo: Dean Sewell

The NSW Liberal Party has risked reigniting leadership tensions within the federal party by using Malcolm Turnbull in a last-minute push to shore up votes in marginal seats.

Fairfax Media has learned that voters in the state electorates of Coogee and Blue Mountains received recorded telephone messages known as a "robocall" - from Mr Turnbull on Tuesday night.

A Facebook user in the Blue Mountains complained: "As I was just typing that I just got a recorded message from Malcolm Turnbull telling me to vote for my local Liberal. I got one from Mike Baird last week. Don't appreciate that tactic."

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The calculated use of Mr Turnbull by the state party is a potential embarrassment for Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who has been kept largely off the campaign trail except for a non-speaking role at the Liberal campaign launch over the weekend.

A Liberal Party operative warned before the campaign proper that Mr Abbott was "toxic" in cosmopolitan Liberal seats such as Coogee.

On Wednesday, a state Liberal source said: "If Turnbull was the [federal] leader we would be leading in Coogee, there's no doubt about that and Blue Mountains probably fits into the same category."

But the same source insisted the use of the Communications Minister was no slight on Mr Abbott.

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Liberals snub Tony Abbott by wheeling out Malcolm Turnbull for assault on marginal state seats