The minority Conservative government has easily survived a confidence vote on its immigration bill after the Opposition Liberals declared that they are not prepared to hang an election on the proposed reforms.

The vote of 201 to 68 defeated an NDP amendment that sought to remove the immigration amendments from the budget bill. If the NDP amendment had passed, it would have killed the budget bill along with the controversial immigration reforms.

Because the Liberals decided to vote with the Conservatives, the budget bill is expected to pass second reading this week. It will then be reviewed by the finance committee for a period of up to 60 days, before it will be returned to the House of Commons for third reading. At that time, MP's will have another chance to oppose the bill before it goes to Senate. If the bill passes Senate approval, it will become law.

The Liberals are calling for the budget bill to be sent to the immigration committee along with the finance committee, for a more proper review of the immigration elements included in the bill.

At this time, there is no certainty that the bill will become law.