The outgoing federal finance minister is warning that Canadians won't like seeing some of their existing income tax cuts removed.

Ralph Goodale also says the Conservatives would be risking deficits if they pursue all their tax cuts and spending promises.

"Having experienced them for one year, they're something Canadians are likely to get quite attached to and would not take kindly to seeing that ripped away from them," Goodale, who was re-elected in his Regina-Wascana riding in the Jan. 23 federal election, told The Canadian Press on Tuesday.

"That (Liberal) tax package that we introduced in November was very, very broadly supported and approved ... it should be part of the go-forward agenda,'' he said.

Goodale's warning comes as The Globe and Mail reports that prime minister-designate Stephen Harper looks set to recall Parliament in the near term and introduce a budget as early as March.

Harper and his new cabinet will be sworn in on Monday, Feb. 6.

Harper plans to make good on the Conservative campaign promise to reduce the GST by one per cent as soon as April 1, the paper reported.

Harper pledged to cut the GST "immediately" after taking office, and the Tories believe the move is now too politically popular for opposition parties to block.

They planned to help pay for that by rolling back some Liberal tax cuts.

To start the ball rolling on the GST cut, which sends a signal to the Canada Revenue Agency to administer the changes, the Conservatives must table a so-called ways and means motion, which will be followed up with amendments to tax legislation.

If the Tories aren't able to enact it by April 1 (the start of the new fiscal year), they are likely to aim for July 1, the start of the second quarter.

New finance minister

Conservative sources told The Globe that former Ontario finance minister Jim Flaherty is seen as a leading contender for the post of federal finance minister in the new Tory government.

Flaherty was elected on Jan. 23 as a Conservative MP for the Ontario riding of Whitby-Oshawa.

"He did a very good job as finance minister in Ontario," Don Drummond, chief economist of the Toronto Dominion Bank, told The Globe. "He's a very strong candidate for that position."

Bond agency worried

Whoever takes over the finance portfolio will have to calm the nerves of groups like bond-rating agencies, who are worried about the pressure to spend that might be brought to bear on a minority government.

While Standard and Poor's affirmed Canada's triple-A credit rating this week, the agency said the GST cut plus more health and security spending could leave fiscal surpluses "likely to be reduced to a near-zero balance."

The Conservatives argue that with total federal surpluses of $97 billion expected by 201l, they can keep their promises and stay out of deficit by being disciplined on the spending front and rolling back some Liberal tax cuts.