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CTV Montreal Published Saturday, October 18, 2014 12:55PM EDT Last Updated Saturday, October 18, 2014 1:03PM EDT

A loud and angry protest met the premier in Trois Rivieres Saturday.

Philippe Couillard, elected Liberal MNAs gathered with hundred of Liberal party members there for the party's first national council since winning a majority in April.

Despite pressure from a few hundred protesters outside, the government said it will not back down and intends to deliver a balanced budget to Quebecers, said Couillard.

The premier reiterated his message as union members demonstrated against Bill 3, on the municipal pension reform plans, outside the convention centre.

Many Sret du Qubec officers, assisted by municipal police officers in Trois-Rivires - wearing the red hat in protest against Bill 3 - were mobilized at the event to ensure safety.

The return to a balanced budget, expected next year, will not happen smoothly, admitted Couillard, but he said the majority of Quebecers understand the need to reorganize public finances.

The coming months will be risky ones for the Couillard government, with negotiations to renew collective agreements for 550,000 public sector employees. The joint trade union front is demanding annual wage increases of more than 4.5 per cent over three years.

With files from La Presse Canadienne

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Liberals won't bend on cutbacks to reach balanced budget: Couillard

Ferguson Blacks Being Used By Liberals To Protest
Ferguson Blacks Being Used By Liberals To Protest http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/10/ferguson-protesters-march-at-upscale-plaza-frontenac-shopping-mall-in-st-louis/ http://mashable.com/201 ...

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Ferguson Blacks Being Used By Liberals To Protest - Video

Liberals Protesting

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Liberals Protesting - Video

Liberals score higher than other parties in Nanos Index but have slid for second week in succession

After a climb in their party index scores over the summer and early fall, the Liberals registered a decline for the second week in succession.

Even with the decline the Liberals enjoy a score on the 100 point index stronger than the other federal parties. The Liberals scored 59 points out of 100 compared to the Conservatives who scored 52 points, the NDP 49 points, the Green Party 32 points and the BQ in Quebec 25 points.

On the preferred Prime Minister front the eight point gap last week is now a five point gap. Asked who they would prefer as Prime Minister, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was first at 35 per cent followed by Conservative Leader Stephen Harper at 30 per cent, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair at 17 per cent and May at four per cent.

Over the past two weeks the Conservative accessible vote pool has started to positively move but still trails both the Liberals and the New Democrats.

Asked a series of independent questions, 58 per cent of Canadians would consider voting for the federal Liberals, 46 per cent would consider the NDP, 42 per cent would consider the Conservatives and 26 per cent would consider the Green Party of Canada.

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Liberals score higher than other parties in Power Index, but register decline

The Ontario government quietly changed the rules of a public loan program expressly to give money to MaRS, underlining the effort the province made to use tax dollars to help the research incubator salvage a failing real estate deal.

In 2011, the province gave MaRS a $224-million loan, with a monthly interest rate of between 2.44 and 2.57 per cent, to save a plan to build a new office tower at University Avenue and College Street in Toronto. But MaRS did not actually qualify for the loan from Crown corporation Infrastructure Ontario. So the Liberals rewrote the rules.

The MaRS project was a unique situation, and the government made decisions to ensure that [the office tower project] did not collapse, Economic Development and Infrastructure Minister Brad Duguid said on Wednesday. And part of that was making a decision as to whether we would ensure that MaRS was eligible for that infrastructure program.

Mr. Duguid said the government stepped in because MaRS could not get financing from the private sector. Private lenders, he said, wanted the project to have most of its tenants signed up before they would support it. The tower is still only about one-third full.

It was a proposition that was very challenged, he admitted to reporters after a legislative committee hearing during which he discussed the governments rule change.

Even with the loan, MaRSs project fell apart, because the organization could not find enough tenants. The government bailed it out again this year. Mr. Duguid is considering moving bureaucrats into the building and paying MaRS taxpayer-funded rents to help it repay the loan.

In committee hearings this week, the Liberals have blocked the release of documents related to the MaRS loan and bailout. Among other things, the Grits refuse to release the business calculations Infrastructure Ontario did when evaluating MaRSs loan request. Mr. Duguid has said such calculations may not even exist.

NDP MPP Percy Hatfield accused the government of secrecy.

If you are doing this sort of thing, you should be upfront, fully accountable, fully transparent, he said. Tell the taxpayers: this is how were spending your money, this is why were spending your money in this fashion, and this is what we hope to achieve by it.

Progressive Conservative MPP Ted Arnott said the Liberals had clearly hidden some aspects of the bailout before the provincial election.

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Liberals changed rules to lend $224-million to MaRS, committee hears