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What to expect when you’re expecting a budget

The Canadian Press says the Harper government will cut $7 billion from discretionary spending. But the Conservatives won’t be saying how. At least not yet.

Flaherty will not detail how the cuts will be implemented in the budget, but the sources say most of the reductions will be front-loaded to realize the biggest savings.

Indeed, the Star says silence is the order of the next few days.

Some government departments have been told to throw a 48-hour cone of silence over the impact on federal jobs and programs from spending reductions announced Thursday, officials say.

The budget will apparently promise to overhaul environmental regulations. Those changes won’t be detailed until later, but the legislative amendments will be rolled into the budget bill.

The package will include legislative amendments that are expected to be part of the government’s overall budget implementation act – a prospect that is raising concerns among opposition MPs and environmentalists that the Conservatives intend to ram through the changes with little debate.

The one thing we can know for sure: Jim Flaherty is getting new shoes.

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