Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said his party won't bring down the Conservative minority government over the mini-budget it presented Tuesday in Ottawa. 

"We will choose our time about when to put the government down. It will not be tomorrow [Wednesday]," Dion said. "The key point is that we will not choose to have three elections in three-and-a-half years."

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, seen Tuesday with finance critic John McCallum, says his party won't bring down the government Wednesday.
(CBC)

Dion said Canadians have had too many elections in past years, and that his party will not vote against the ways and means motion attached to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's mini-budget.

Flaherty's fiscal update outlined a one percentage point cut to the GST, as well as cuts to personal and corporate tax rates.

A vote on the motion enabling the Tories to make the tax changes will come at 3:15 p.m. ET Wednesday. The Conservatives need the support of one other opposition party, or the government will fall.

NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe have said they will not support the mini-budget.

GST 'ill-conceived'

Dion said Prime Minister Stephen Harper has returned Canadians to 2005, when the former Liberal government cut the personal tax rate on the lowest income bracket to 15 per cent from 16 per cent.

The Liberals announced the tax cut before calling the 2006 federal election. When they took office upon winning the election, the Conservatives, who voted against the Liberal tax cut, raised the rate to 15.5 per cent.

NDP Leader Jack Layton says he won't support Flaherty's statement and that the tax cuts will benefit only the most wealthy.
(CBC)

"Unfortunately, $1 billion has stayed in the coffers of government and not in your pocket," Dion said.

Dion also criticized the GST reduction as "ill-conceived" and a "big mistake," saying the government needs to make more investments in the "social fabric" of the country.

The Liberals are struggling in the polls and face internal controversy over Dion's leadership following byelection losses in Quebec last month.

Layton called the government's fiscal statement "unbalanced," saying it failed to support families, transit and housing and instead gave large tax cuts to oil companies and banks.

"It was an unprecedented opportunity to invest in people and communities," Layton said. "The NDP will be voting against this plan."

Duceppe said he disagrees with the GST cut and would be ready to fight an election over the fiscal update.

"We just can't support this," he said.