The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, as my friend Paul Vieira reports today, concludes that the Conservative federal government went on a spending spree this summer issuing 294 press releases that, when you add up the dollar figure in each one, comes to about $15-billion. And that's just since the end of June when Parliament went on its summer recess.
Now, I've been tracking these very same spending announcements all summer and, if you ask me, our friends at the CTF underestimated the spending announcements rolled out this summer — by perhaps as much as $5-billion. I'll have more to say about that shortly. I should note, however, that earlier this summer, we were reporting that, within 23 days of being let out for summer recess, 62 Conservative MPs had put their names on more than 130 news releases in which they announced, re-announced or otherwise took credit for over nearly $3 billion in spending.
This week alone — as we head to a federal election campaign tomorrow — there's been more than $5-billion in spending announcements.
Now, the CTF and any of the Conservatives' political opponents would agree that much of the spending was appropriate and necessary. Infrastructure Minister Lawrence Cannon, for example, accounted for $10-billion in announcements just by signing deals to give Ontario and Quebec money for infrastructure projects. (One of those — $4-billion for Quebec — was the biggie this week). And that may only be a fraction of the billions required to modernize the roads, bridges, and pipes in those two provinces. (All provinces, by the way, got some part of Ottawa's $34-billion infrastructure pot, the latest being Manitoba on Friday.!)
But there's some other spending announcements that surely must raise an eyebrow or two in the Conservative Party's mostly western base, a base that favoured aggressive spending cuts and once upon a time, frowned on the sorts of things I'll list below — particularly on the eve of an election. These are two announcements, both from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, made on Friday, two days before the election call:
- The Government of Canada will invest $2 million in a new farmers’ market proposed for the Halifax waterfront.
- A $50,000 contribution to the Nova Scotia Curling Association in connection with the Sobeys Slam 2008 international curling tournament in New Glasgow in November. (Sept. 5/08) New Glasgow, incidentally, just happens to be the riding of the minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency — one Peter MacKay.
Once upon a time, Stephen Harper called this sort of thing pork. Now he says, “This is demonstrating what the government has been doing and will continue to do for Canadians. This is the kind of thing we're going to do if we get re-elected.”
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The question that must be asked is the difference between these announcements and those of the Liberal Paul Martin government in the past. These are not new spending promised if the government gets elected but announcements of distribution of funds previously budgeted and passed by the House of Commons. While the timing may certainly be critiqued, the intent is not.