"It's a huge sum of money that's about to be given and the largest Christmas present in Canadian history to corporate Canada and it should be stopped," Layton said.
Money saved by eliminating the cuts should be spent on health care and cities, he told reporters.
Former B.C. premier Mike Harcourt, also a New Democrat, was named on Friday as Martin's top adviser in the prime minister's plan to launch a "New Deal" for Canadian cities.
Layton said Harcourt would be a strong advocate for the cities and the NDP would be supporting him.
The corporate tax rate will fall in the New Year based on a phased-in cut announced in 2000 when Martin was finance minister.
'We don't need economic lessons from Mr. Layton'
After his first cabinet minister as prime minister Saturday, Martin said everything is under review. But he told reporters that the lower tax rate will almost certainly stay in place.
"I would doubt that that's where a change would be made. The focus is going to be on government spending," Martin said.
Layton accused Martin of being too closely tied to the private sector. But the new prime minister said he's proud of his record of job creation as a former minister of finance.
"The fact is that I don't think we need to take any economics lessons from Mr. Layton," Martin added.
Newly appointed Finance Minister Ralph Goodale also rejected Layton's call to scrap the corporate tax cuts, which he said "are obviously aimed at the stimulation of jobs and economic growth." The cuts are designed to ultimately ensure that social and other programs can be funded, Goodale argued.
"We have tried to be balanced in the approach," Goodale said. "The vast majority of our tax reductions over the last number of years have in fact focused upon ordinary, middle-income Canadians and lower-income Canadians. That's where the largest share of the benefit has gone."
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