During a luncheon speech today in Sydney, N.S., Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said the budget to be tabled Tuesday will contain $1.15 billion in spending on programs that could help the forestry sector and small towns in rural Canada that depend on that sector.
This pre-budget spending announcement comes the day after the PMO said the deficit would be $34 billion next year.
I'm sensing that the government's communications strategy is to push out quite a bit of the budget ahead of time to gain control of the news agenda.
Up next: HRDC MInister Diane Finley at 1:30 EDT today in Toronto; Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in Edmonton at 11 am (Mountain); and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq at noon PST in Vancouver. Wonder what they might have to say …
Seems to me like they're treating next Tuesday's budget release the same way they run their election campaigns, a whole lot of anouncements that equal one fragmented platform.