Orders of the Day - Let the belated budget debate begin!

With the budget -- or, to use its official talking point-ready title, the Next Phase of Canada's Economic Action! Plan -- having made its obligatory reappearance in the House, the first of six days allotted to its debate will get underway in the House later this morning.

First up: Jack Layton, Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition and the first and only New Democrat in history to get the first speaking slot -- which comes with unlimited time, although if he's smart, he won't abuse the privilege so soon at the very first opportunity to do so. Layton will, of course, be followed by The Interim Leader of the Third Party, who will be kept to a strict 20 minute timeline, after which amendments -- sub- and otherwise -- may well be proposed by one or more opposition parties, albeit with full knowledge and understanding that they will almost certainly go down to ignoble defeat when it comes time to count the votes.

On the committee front: Nothing -- not even an in camera meeting of Procedure and House Affairs, which has been tasked of compiling the membership lists required to re-strike the rest of the usual standing committee suspects, with the exception of Government Operations and Estimates, which was recently -- and somewhat quietly, it's fair to say -- put in charge of wrangling main and supplementary estimates for every single department and agency. That little gambit bears watching, you mark my words.

In any case, let's get busy, shall we, PROC? Times a' wastin' -- just eleven more sitting days until the break, and if you miss the deadline, restless MPs won't be able to summon their respective committee back to town to debate whether to hold emergency meetings on whatever story dominating the headlines could conceivably be squeezed in under its mandate.

Meanwhile, outside the precinct, it's all aboard the ministerial good news circuit, starting with the finance minister himself, who will head to Montreal today to deliver a lunch speech at the International Economic Forum of the Americas.

Also on out-of-town cheerleading duty today: Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver at the Toronto Board of Trade; Minister of State for Finance Ted Menzies at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce; Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Peter Penashue at the Rotary Club of St. John's; Revenue Minister Gail Shea at Enterprise Greater Moncton; Minister of State for Transport Steven Fletcher at the Budget 2011 Manitoba Business Leaders' Roundtable and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz at the Regina and District Chamber of Commerce.

Yes, it's a pretty good bet that every one will be reading out a lightly localized version of the exact same speech. No, no one will notice. It's not like their respective audiences will get a chance to compare notes.

Finally, back on the Hill, the National Allied Golf Associations -- an industry lobby group the existence of which I and, I suspect, not a few of my colleagues, was entirely unaware until today -- has convened a press conference to make its case for "tax fairness" -- which, in its view, can only be achieved by allowing the deduction of "golf-related expenses for client entertainment purposes." Well, tis the season, I suppose.