A pair of budget bills promising billions in spending will likely be the focus in Ottawa as MPs return to Parliament for the final four weeks of the spring session.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe made clear on Sunday that he, like Tory Leader Stephen Harper, will attempt to block the passing of those bills before the House of Commons summer recess.

"We'll vote against it unless there's something new in that budget that we think will be good for Quebec," Duceppe said in an interview with Craig Oliver on CTV's Question Period.

The Tories' and Bloc's fight against Bills C-43 and C-48 will take place at the Commons finance committee starting Tuesday. The two parties hold a majority in that committee compared with Liberal and NDP numbers.

The Tories and Bloc plan to focus on Bill C-48, which would boost budget spending by $4.6 billion. The government agreed to the new spending in order to win the NDP's support.

But Conservative and Bloc members have expressed concerns about a lack of safeguards to ensure the billions won't be misspent, and also over what the budget doesn't include.

"There are important things missing in that budget. There's nothing considering fiscal imbalance; nothing considering employment insurance," Duceppe said Sunday, adding that the government's budget plan for implementing the Kyoto Protocol does nothing for Quebec.

Alliances

Harper has said the prime minister is spending taxpayers' money "like a drunken sailor" to retain NDP support.

On Sunday's Question Period, Tory MP Joy Smith accused Prime Minister Paul Martin of "dropping money from province to province on the backs of taxpayers. He's running an election campaign on taxpayers' money."

But the Conservatives have admitted any attempt to force an election is unlikely to succeed as long as the NDP keeps backing the Liberals.

And that backing will hold "as long as the Liberals are working with us to expedite the budget process," said New Democrat MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis on Sunday.

The Tories and Bloc, however, aren't in any rush to push the bills through committee.

"The 2004 budget is still in the Senate. So we'll take all the time we need," said Duceppe on Sunday. "We want to debate all the points we'll bring forward next week concerning those two bills -- C-43 and C-48 -- and then we'll see how long it will take."

The Bloc leader stopped short, however, of saying he'll try to bring the government down on another confidence motion before the break -- something the Conservatives haven't promised.

The Liberals could face confidence votes on several matters in the final weeks of the spring session.