Whether the Conservatives will try to take down the minority government after Justice John Gomery's releases his long-awaited report on the sponsorship scandal will depend on the "public response," warns Deputy Conservative Leader Peter MacKay.

"If the public are so outraged that they feel this is something that the government and the prime minister should finally be held accountable for, then that possibility may come," he said, appearing on CTV's Question Period.

"But the NDP will have to fully participate in that effort."

However, one observer says that if Prime Minister Paul Martin is cleared of any blame in the report, the now-defunct sponsorship program will not become an election issue.

"The only issue is: Is Paul Martin implicated?" said Allan Gregg, chairman of The Strategic Counsel, appearing on CTV's Question Period.

"If the answer is yes, I think we're into an election right away, I think all three parties will coalesce to defeat the government. If the answer is no, then they clearly will let Parliament continue to work," he said.

However, MacKay conceded that taking down the government may not be possible.

"The Liberal party has set it up so there will be no (opposition) votes until some time late in November," he said.

The Liberal government has stacked the parliamentary calendar to make it almost impossible for the Opposition to trigger an election before the winter holidays.

Tuesday's move to delay opposition days until Nov. 14 will likely spare the Liberals from campaigning in the shadow of Gomery's most damning report on the sponsorship scandal.

Martin has promised to call an election within 30 days of Gomery's final report. But instead of sensational details, Gomery's second report is expected to focus on more bureaucratic recommendations to avoid a repeat of the scandal.

Earlier this month, Treasury Board President Reg Alcock announced that the federal government will hire 300 new auditors and spend $40 million annually to tighten monitoring of the civil service.

"If anyone consults any of the experts in internal governance and management and accountability you will find that we have set a new bar for governments right around the world," Alcock said on Question Period. 

"The regimes we brought in, internal audit, independence, oversight, reporting, are such that the kind of loose operation that ran inside of the sponsorship program could not happen again," he said.

But MacKay was quick to dismiss Alcock's suggestions, saying it appears the Liberals are shifting blame to the bureaucracy.

"To suggest now that doubling the bureaucracy is going to somehow fix it, is like suggesting that if we sign up more pyromaniacs and put them charge of the fire department that this is going to prevent it from happening," MacKay said. "It's not going to work. The real problem is deep within the Liberal Party of Canada."

Government House Leader Tony Valeri will table Gomery's report in the House of Commons on Tuesday at 10 a.m. CTV news will have live coverage of the release of the Gomery report on Tuesday.