By Allan Dowd VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Canada's minority Conservative government must start overhauling its climate change policy before there is a vote on its budget, the head of the left-of-center New Democratic Party, which may hold the balance of power in Parliament, said on Wednesday. NDP leader Jack Layton met briefly on Tuesday with the government's new environment minister, John Baird, but said it was too early to say if the Conservatives were open to the changes he demanded to toughen up the government's climate change policy. Layton's party found itself wielding new political clout last week after a seat change in the House of Commons put it in the position of being able to keep the minority Conservatives in power. The government's budget is expected to be introduced in late February or March, and if the NDP were to join the other opposition parties to defeat it, an election would have to be called. But Layton said he wants a vote in the House of Commons on legislation to cut automobile and industrial emissions before the budget comes to a vote. "We want to see it come back before the end of February so it can be voted on without the cloud of election speculation and budgets and so on," Layton told reporters in Vancouver, where the NDP is holding a caucus meeting.Prime Minister Stephen Harper has insisted Canada cannot meet its targets for cutting carbon emissions under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Canada joined Kyoto under a previous Liberal government.But last week Harper replaced his environment minister with Baird, and acknowledged the government needs to do more on green issues. "I think they realize they've got to come up with something. I don't think they realize how dramatic a shift is needed in their position," Layton said. Layton met with Baird for about 30 minutes in a meeting proposed by the environment minister, who also met in Vancouver on Tuesday with representatives of several environmental groups. "It was a straightforward conversation," Layton said. Harper's political base is in energy-rich Western Canada, which critics say will make him unwilling to take environmental action that could harm the oil and gas industry. Layton and the NDP have found themselves struggling for support on the other end of the environmental political spectrum against the Green Party.
