Canada survived the last one, because of measures put in place by previous governments. Measures that would not have been there, if Harper had had his way when Leader of the Opposition, because he pushed Paul Martin to deregulate the banks.
Fortunately, he didn't listen.
We learned through Wikileaks, that Flaherty and Harper really had no plan for the economy, only hoped that their expensive taxpayer funded ad campaign (more than a quarter of a million dollars), dubbed the Canada Action Plan, would lead us to believe that they did.
We're bombing for oil on the credit card and have committed to massive military spending on hardware.
When Harper made a rare public appearance to take a stab at Nycole Turmel, my husband and I both said "My God. Does he ever look awful". He was pale and nervous, without his usual arrogance.
Last month our local paper, part of the Sun Media chain, ran on the front page of their National section, a story attacking our Attorney General, Sheila Fraser, and her office's spending. This was complimented with a political cartoon.
It all appeared to be a little odd. Where were these stories coming from and why now?
The possible fly in the ointment for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's fall schedule is already in the hands of his government—a potentially explosive report from Auditor General Sheila Fraser on billions of dollars in stimulus spending under the government's Economic Action Plan.
A spokesman for Ms. Fraser confirmed to The Hill Times that findings of the audit, along with audits on a total of 13 other areas that could also provide the opposition with ammunition in Parliament, have been sent to the respective departments under a tight cloak of secrecy for their review, fact verification and possible discussion with Cabinet ministers.
No doubt the report will cover self-promotion advertising, pork-barrelling and the effectiveness of the entire program.
A data-extraction analysis by Ottawa Citizen reporter Glen McGregor and Halifax Chronicle-Herald reporter Stephen Maher last October found that 57 per cent of the stimulus money the government had committed for large projects to that point went to ridings held by Conservative Party of Canada MPs. Their report said the difference then between government and opposition ridings was most pronounced in Quebec, where Conservative ridings received 22 per cent of large projects even though the party holds only 13 per cent of ridings. Liberal districts received only 10 per cent of large projects though they hold 19 per cent of seats in Quebec.
... Mr. [John] McCallum [Liberal MP, Markham-Unionville, Ont] said political favouritism is only one aspect he and his party expect Ms. Fraser may have investigated. He recalled the controversy over millions of dollars the government spent promoting the program—at least $34-million—and allegations that the advertising was a thinly disguised promotion of the Conservative party rather than a useful guide for citizen and business participation. At one point, the government was pressured into withdrawing more than 30 photos of Prime Minister Harper from the Economic Action Plan website. The government was discovered spending $46,000 to turn two commuter train cars in Toronto into rolling billboards for the action plan, in the midst of the H1N1 pandemic scare, and the government spent $108,000 on an action plan reporting event on the plan's progress that, critics said, looked more like an election campaign rally.
If only Harper had his Fox News North up and running. They would have spent weeks destroying the reputation of Sheila Fraser. Biff Buffoon would have encouraged rallies for her removal and called on God to strike her down, while Janie Saber would have gone through her garbage and published receipts for Starbucks coffee. Clearly she's a Liberal.
Then by the time the report was released, it would have no credibility, having been written by a woman who belongs in a home.
As it is becoming more apparent that the so-called Economic Action Plan, was little more than a public relations scheme, to boost the Reformer's profile; a recent story helps to validate that claim.
Harper Aide, Ryan Sparrow, worked to keep the five million dollar price tag of the Olympic ad scheme, a secret.
A senior Conservative official repeatedly intervened last month to try and suppress the revelation that Ottawa spent $5-million on a TV advertising blitz surrounding the Vancouver Olympics, new records show.
In a tense exchange of e-mails over a two-day period, ministerial aide Ryan Sparrow blocked attempts by bureaucrats to reveal the price tag of the ads that aimed to promote Conservative budgetary measures.
The civil service had prepared the numbers in response to a question from The Globe and Mail, but records just released under the Access to Information Act show that Mr. Sparrow managed to temporarily hold back on their release.
Another journalist who tried to get information on ad spending for the action plan (now believed to be over one hundred million dollars), received over two hundred pages of junk.
If we are finding it this difficult to learn this government's secrets, what of the ones we don't find about? There is a very disturbing pattern here.
"The Economic Action Plan is just as much about stimulating the Conservative party's reelection chances... This is an abuse of tax dollars. Canadians should not be forced, through their taxes, to subsidize a political party's agenda." (Gerry Nicholls, National Post, Friday, October 16, 2009)
There is a story today in the Vancouver Sun that confirms Nicholls assessment of the abuse of tax dollars, under the so-called Canada Economic Action Plan. It neatly lays out how this government turned what should have been a legitimate attempt at stimulating the economy, into a multi-million dollar ad campaign for the Conservative Party of Canada.
Senior bureaucrats told the Harper government shortly after the last election that its infrastructure plan could be used as a "strategically important" communications tool that would provide "excellent visibility" for local ministers and MPs, Canwest News Service has learned.
The advice was included in briefing notes released through Access to Information legislation. They were prepared for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister John Baird in the fall of 2008, shortly before opposition MPs started questioning whether the government was using its economic stimulus spending to raise its profile and boost its popularity.
From the beginning, the backroom of Harper's House of Haunts, was busy funnelling money to ridings that needed it most, not based on which ones were hit the hardest by the economic downturn, but those that would benefit the Reformers chances of winning the next election.
There is a website called Fake Action Plan, that goes into this in some depth.
Acton Plan Heavy on Advertising Short on Action
"The partisan handouts are just the latest game played with your tax dollars by a government that promised to do things differently. It has blanketed the airwaves with government-promotion ads at a pace six times the rate of any H1N1 public education blitz." (Don Martin, National Post, October 16, 2009)
Signs and television ads became more important than getting money out the door. In Kingston I found several large signs on projects that were .. well ... absent of any project. In fact the only action appearing to have been taken, was sticking up the damn sign.
One was in a church courtyard, where I often sit when I'm downtown. A huge sign blocked my view with the announcement that the Government of Canada was committed to restoring government buildings, or something to that effect.
But the nearest government building was at least a half a block away. So I walked down to it, and there just happened to be a maintenance guy outside, so I asked him if he knew of any restoration going on inside. He answered 'no, but I'm just about to mow the lawn'.
I found another at the base of a creek, with the claim that the Government of Canada was committed to preserving Canada's waterways. Waterways? It was a bloody creek. You could actually jump over it.
And all of this was paid for not only with my federal tax dollars, but provincial and municipal as well, since they found a way to bilk us at all levels.
Big Cardboard Cheques
"There really is sort of layer upon layer of scandal here. You've got not just the use of the logos but the use of individual MPs handing out this money." ( Andrew Coyne, CBC The National, October 15, 2009)
Canadians also learned of the abuse of the Government of Canada, trying to make it appear that the money was coming from the Conservative Party of Canada, and not the Canadian taxpayer.
The uproar was immediate with cries of whose money is it anyway. Not only were MPs handing out big cardboard cheques, signed by them or Stephen Harper, but they were also leaving out the local MPs, if they weren't from their party. One NDP MP complained that the project being funded was a result of her work, and yet she learned that it had been approved by reading it in her local paper. And guess who was handing out the cheque? The Conservative candidate for the next election.
Pork Barrelling
"Beyond the shameful chequebook politics, there's an apparent tendency to concentrate stimulus funding in government-held ridings." (Don Martin, National Post, October 16, 2009)
Instead of targeting the stimulus money to areas that most needed it and were closer to actually putting shovels in the ground, the ref-Cons targeted the spending on ridings that were either vulnerable for them, or the ridings of cabinet ministers.
Pork-barrelling is nothing new, but the economic crisis called for urgent action, not politicking. Many of the projects that sported their 'Actions' signs were ones already in progress or for simple maintenance. Few new jobs.
I posted before about two environmental groups who were taking the government to court because they decided without consent from Parliament to forgo environmental assessments on new projects.
As I stated then, '... many people will say that they were being forced to get the money out the door as soon as possible, so didn't have time for any studies. However, they spent a great deal of time studying how they could direct the stimulus money into improving their political fortunes, while ignoring any notion that the money should go to communities who suffered a greater impact from the downturn.'
Now we learn that the environmental assessment panel has not even met since 2008, and even then conducted no business, so it's pretty clear that that this government has no intention of doing any assessments at all.
And since it would appear that the Canada Action Plan was little more than a PR campaign, by leaving the study to the provinces, if projects get turned down, they will have someone to blame.
OTTAWA - A federal panel that advises the government on the environmental impact of new economic development has been left on the sidelines for nearly two years, Canwest News Service has learned. Throughout this time, sweeping changes to regulations have been passed, effectively exempting thousands of projects from mandatory evaluations. `We haven't had any notice that the minister has dissolved the committee, but it's kind of awkward to have a committee that doesn't meet,'' said Gary Schneider, who sits on the panel.
Schneider, the co-chairman of the Environmental Coalition of Prince Edward Island, said the last meeting of the Regulatory Advisory Committee was in the spring of 2008. But, he said, no consultations were held with the panel in 2009, as the government introduced a series of exemptions for new infrastructure projects ...
Further to the Reform Party Stimulus Fairy Tale, John Baird is now telling all the good little boys and girls that everything will be just fine.
The lineups at the food banks are orderly. The homeless people who have no cars to live in, can camp out under the bridges that are in need of repair, and bankrupt Canadians will soon join them; so they won't feel lonely.
I think Canadians need to write the end of the story:
"And the Reformers were driven off Parliament Hill and we all lived happily ever after".
Stimulus report a 'fairy tale' Liberal MP Kennedy says government misleading Canadians on number of projects Les Whittington Ottawa Bureau December 2, 2009
OTTAWA–A report on the Conservative government's economic stimulus plan will say that 8,000 government-funded urban renewal projects have been launched across the country this year. The Conservatives previously reported that Ottawa's funding had helped get more than 4,000 road, bridge and other infrastructure projects under way by the end of September. The latest figures will double that estimate.
While Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on a visit to China, his government is to unveil the quarterly report Wednesday to Parliament on the economic program.
The Liberals on Tuesday accused the Harper government of misleading Canadians about Ottawa's pro-growth program.
"Canadians are going to get an expensive fairy tale," Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy said when asked about the report. "It's going to be all promotion and no reality," Kennedy (Parkdale-High Park) told reporters. "It's unfortunate for Canadians that they are going to be misled by their own government."
The 8,000 projects underway include more than 40 per cent of the projects announced under the flagship Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, The Canadian Press reported.
The $4 billion fund, which requires matching cash from provincial and municipal governments, has approved 3,226 projects, a spokesman for Transport Minister John Baird told the news agency. Of those projects, 1,390 – or 43 per cent – accounting for $1.4 billion in federal funding have moved beyond the announcement stage and work has started, Chris Day said.
Harper committed to compiling the quarterly reports on how quickly the government's stimulus spending is getting out the door as a condition for Liberal support of the Conservatives' 2009 budget. But the reports and the economic action plan have become a magnet for conflict between the Liberal opposition and the government.
For instance, the Liberals said their sampling of 1,000 projects showed that only 12 per cent of the infrastructure projects were creating any jobs by September.
They also say the government refuses to release information that would give the public a clear idea of how many jobs are being created by Ottawa's infrastructure spending, which is costing taxpayers $16 billion over two years.
Kennedy, the Liberal infrastructure critic, said cities are required, as a condition for receiving funding from Ottawa, to regularly report job-creation numbers for urban renewal projects. But the government has refused to make these reports public, he said. "There can only be one reason – the Conservatives made false claims of `90 per cent of projects implemented' and thousands of jobs created, while hiding the information that contradicts those claims."
Asked about this in the Commons, Baird said Kennedy was working with outdated information that is three or four weeks old. (Actually the new reports suggest a mere 7%)
Baird said the government's spending is accomplishing its goal of stimulating economic activity.
"The economic action plan is working and we are continuing to make announcements and see construction begin in every corner of the country," he told MPs.
Well, turns out they were right. 100 million for Reform Party advertising, 45 million for Reform Party signs, and despite the fact that Harper announced recently that 90% of the funding was out the door, we learn today that a mere 7% has been invested in Canada.
7%. That's it. All that bluster was nothing more than empty rhetoric. So where in hell did our money go? We are now a half a trillion dollars in debt, with nothing to show for it. Billions of dollars of worthless paper thanks to Jim Flaherty.
No steam in stimulus Only 7 per cent of infrastructure projects begun across country By STEPHEN MAHER The Chronicle Herald and GLEN McGREGOR The Ottawa Citizen December 1, 2009
Shovels were in the ground on only seven per cent of the projects funded by the Harper government’s largest infrastructure stimulus program by late September, newly released data show.
The revelation from the government’s own numbers is likely to add weight to opposition claims that the bulk of the unprecedented wave of government spending won’t hit the street until the construction season of 2010, when the worst of the global economic downturn may have passed.
The database detailing spending under the $4-billion Infrastructure Stimulus Fund shows that construction has started on only 201 of 3,034 projects – building, water, road and sewer ventures across the country.
The figures were compiled on Sept. 22, a week before Prime Minister Stephen Harper held a carefully choreographed event in Saint John, N.B., at which he trumpeted that 90 per cent of the money in his economic stimulus package had been committed.
At the time, opposition critics scoffed that he was refusing to announce the number of projects actually started, emphasizing the high percentage of projects approved.
But the database detailing the Infrastructure Stimulus Fund spending includes only $2.8 billion of federal spending commitments, which is about 70 per cent of the $4-billion two-year fund, a figure substantially lower than Mr. Harper’s assertion that 90 per cent of infrastructure spending had been committed.
However, there are several other funds in the federal government’s two-year $12-billion infrastructure investment program, meant to inject some gas into the economy struggling to cope with a global recession.
It is possible that shovels had hit the ground in more projects than the database shows, because the federal government’s reporting regime lags significantly behind actual construction starts. The database shows that 66 per cent of projects were scheduled to start by the time the database was assembled.
Other projects have begun since then. For instance, a $38-million tunnel between Algonquin College and the Baseline Road transit station in Ottawa broke ground Oct. 16 with Infrastructure Minister John Baird on hand.
Federal government spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests Tuesday to explain the low number of construction starts. Opposition critics have complained that the government has tried to hide the number of construction starts, because it shows the Harper government hasn’t been acting quickly enough.
The database was prepared for MPs on the government operations committee and obtained by The Halifax Chronicle Herald and Ottawa Citizen.
The results show that in most provinces no projects have been started. Only projects in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan are underway.
Most of the projects actually underway – 169 of them - were in Quebec, all but one were water main projects under the province’s PRECO program. The federal government announced a $350-million contribution to the program in April.
The approval process for projects in Quebec - where the federal government is forbidden by law from dealing directly with municipalities – is different from those in other provinces, where municipalities file applications, which must be approved by civil servants, then politicians.
The database gives some indication of the difficulties that the federal civil service faces as it struggles to get projects approved quickly without violating regulations designed to safeguard taxpayer dollars. There are 30 fields of information for each project, with boxes to be checked off for permits from three levels of government, environmental approval and aboriginal consultation.
One civil servant familiar with the approval process who requested anonymity said it was not surprising that so few projects had actually been started.
“These things take a long time because there are multiple levels of intermediaries, thanks to provinces and municipalities,” the civil servant said.
“So by the time the negotiations go through and a contribution agreement is signed it normally takes a year and a half.” More than 1000 projects are still waiting for the necessary permits or environmental approvals to begin work, the data show, even though the government acted to streamline environmental approvals in the 2009 budget.
Looking at our enormous deficit and news that our debt has now reached half a trillion dollars, has me wondering where the money went. Few jobs have been created, and in fact the government can't even provide us with those figures.
They tell us that the stimulus plan is working but Canadians are still losing their jobs and bankruptcies are on the rise. It's looking more and more like the Canada Action Plan was nothing more than a publicity stunt.
During the last election campaign one year ago, the Harper Conservatives promised Canadians there would be no recession or deficit.
One year later, 1.6 million Canadians are out of work and our economy has shed half-a-million employee jobs. Personal bankruptcies have increased by 47% since last year.
With our first trade deficit in 30 years, our economic growth lags behind G7 peers like Japan, Germany and France who exited their recessions last spring. Canada lags behind even the U.S., whose downturn was supposed to be deeper and longer.
Conservative mismanagement took Canada into deficit before a dime of stimulus spending was spent. Recall that in 2006, the Liberals left office with a $13-billion surplus. It only took two budgets before Jim Flaherty had Canada back into the red.
By cutting revenues and increasing spending at an unsustainable pace, the Conservatives drove the nation's finances into structural deficit before the recession and the last election.
At the onset of the recession, Canada's Conservative government was last among the G7 countries to propose a stimulus plan, acting only after sparking a parliamentary crisis.
January's budget estimated a $34-billion deficit. By spring, it grew to $50 billion, before ballooning to a record $56 billion.
Canadians are asking what lasting benefit they're getting in return for this record deficit. The Conservatives had the opportunity of a generation to invest in Canada's future economic growth. What legacy has been left behind to bring back the jobs we've lost or create the jobs of tomorrow?
As it turns out, the Conservatives spent the cupboard bare while times were good, and didn't invest in the future when times were tough. Despite billions in deficit spending, they have no plan for a healthy, smart, clean and compassionate Canada of tomorrow.
Instead of investing in Canada's clean energy future, Conservatives wasted billions in public funds on advertising, signage and pork-barrel projects -- buying votes with government cheques signed by Conservative MPs.
Instead of rebuilding our manufacturing sector, the Harper government spent $3 billion annually on consultants for part-time contract work and public relations advice.
Instead of making Canada a leader in science, research and development, they cut scientific funding to our research granting councils, sparking an exodus of our brightest minds to other countries.
Never has so much been spent to achieve so little.
This government failed to make investments Canada needs to compete in the new economy.
Consider that for every dollar invested in clean jobs, the economy gets four times more return than for a dollar invested in traditional industries. Yet Canada is being out-paced 13-to-one by the United States when it comes to investments in renewable and environmental technologies. The race is underway to compete in the new economy, but Stephen Harper has failed to even get us to the starting line.
Compare this with the Liberal track record. After erasing a $42-billion deficit, Canada thrived in an unprecedented period of economic growth. We kept Canada in surplus for a decade by growing revenues while lowering taxes, without borrowing from our children's futures to finance it.
Canadians deserve sound fiscal management and a clear plan for future growth in return for Canada's record deficit.
Instead, all we get is more Conservative financial fiction.
(McCallum is the Liberal finance critic and MP for Markham-Unionville)
I read a little blurb the other day about Jim Flaherty and his projected financial update for January. He will be proposing some cuts, wrapped into a confidence motion. The suggestion of course is that no one will want to bring down the Ref-Con government just before the Olympics.
But what if they want someone to bring them down?
Their good polling numbers right now might be their best chance, though with the current scandal over possible war crimes, that could be fleeting.
I can almost guarantee that one of the things Flaherty will hide in this budget, will be an end to voter subsidies. Steven Fletcher has been working on this behind the scenes.
If he is able to get this through it could be devastating to the NDP, Bloc and Green Parties, who rely on those subsidies to keep going. And of course we always tell people that even if they feel their vote won't get their candidate elected, at least it will help to finance future campaigns.
The Reformers count on keeping people home on voting night, and this will be one more reason for them to do so.
However, James Travers thinks there may be another reason. With a major scandal brewing over the stimulus money, and public servants saying that they won't take the fall, everyone is going into damage control. Maybe they'll want to get an election over with before the you know what hits the fan.
OTTAWA—Public scrutiny of billions in stimulus spending and a private struggle over where the buck stops are putting a best-before-date on Stephen Harper's government. Auditor General Sheila Fraser's winter look at the Economic Action Plan, along with the refusal of top civil servants to be blamed for politically tainted projects, means voters will almost certainly go to the polls before she reports late next fall.
Controversy over giant cheques, flattering signs and lavish advertising are only a taste of what Conservatives can expect if, as is widely anticipated here, abuses are found in the way the ruling party is distributing more than $35 billion. Fearing what's ahead, deputy ministers are protecting themselves by taking advantage of stronger accountability safeguards put into place after Justice John Gomery's inquiry into the Quebec sponsorship scandal ....
The 45 millions dollars spent on signage so far, is being passed to the provinces and municipalities, and those municipalities, if they want stimulus funding, must agree to foot the bill for everything related to the funding, including signage. The signs themselves run between $4,000.00 -7, 000.00 each, but there's more:
The recipient is required to give the Conservatives 15 days notice, for any ribbon cutting exercises and must assume all the cost.
For the purposes of events, Eligible Costs include the following:-
- Printing and mailing invitations - Light refreshments, such as coffee, tea, juice, donuts, muffins, snacks - Draping for plaque unveiling - Project material for display and/or media kit - Temporary signage - Rentals such as: flagpoles, Stage, chairs, podium, - PA system
And many of the signs are not even being made in Canada. I don't think this is really that funny. It's rather disgusting actually.
Yes folks the Reform Conservative signage has hit a new low. If you thought forcing municipalities to match their signs and not getting their stimulus money unless they could provide a photo as proof that they went along with the scheme, was bad; this one will really get you.
As Warren Kinsella points out:
This is a picture of a sign.
It is a sign about a sign.
It's in front of the Greenstone Building in Yellowknife.
It's about, and I quote, "installation of interior/exterior signage."
The video is just a reminder that Canadians can laugh at themselves. It is very funny. But what we can't laugh at is the waste of our money.
Two separate stories jerk us into reality, reminding us that our current government is not fiscally responsible. They have no problem spending money so long as that money can be spent to buy them a majority.
The first one is again about these damn ten percenters. Almost seven million dollars for sheer nonsense. None discuss things that are important to Canadians, like health care, the homeless, poverty ... instead they try to imply that Michael Ignatieff once called himself a Samurai Warrior or that he's 'just visiting'. We see enough of that on television.
The Conservatives have made free mail expensive. Reports that Tory MPs ran up $6.3-million in costs last year by mailing out so-called “ten-per-centers” to people outside their ridings have opposition MPs calling for new limits on the free-mail privilege.
The pamphlets are a parliamentary perk: MPs have free mailing privileges, called franking, that allow them to send information outside their riding. But onservatives have employed them at twice the rate of other MPs – and used them to take more bare-knuckled political campaigns into opponents' ridings. “They don't need to use our free franking privileges to carpet-bomb Canada with propaganda. It infuriates me,” New Democrat MP Pat Martin said ...
---------------------
The second story dealing with tax abuse is another reminder of the 100 million dollar Ref-Con ad campaign touting the Canada Action Plan. By now most Canadians are aware of it, so we should cancel the ads and start putting the money into health care; an issue that is still number one on the list of Canadian priorities. They could start with the H1N1 crisis which is far from over, no matter what Mrs. Peacock's kindergarten class says.
Feds' $100-million for stimulus ads should be spent on H1N1 clinics, say opposition Tories accuse opposition parties of frightening the public and creating panic by overstating the degree of the
Provincial warnings to the public about closures of H1N1 vaccination clinics and delays in vaccine delivery contradict the federal government's claim about a sea of vaccine on its way to a worried Canadian public.
On the day Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) reiterated to the House of Commons last week that six million vaccine doses had already been distributed and two million more would be arriving this week, the province of New Brunswick listed more than 50 clinics it was postponing because of vaccine supply problems ....
IS THIS REALLY CONSERVATIVE? IS THIS REALLY YOUR CANADA?
Recent reports have revealed that 90% of the infrastructure projects are proceeding without an environmental impact study, and as a result two agencies are taking the Harper government to court.
Now I know that many people will say that they were being forced to get the money out the door as soon as possible, so didn't have time for any studies. However, there are two contradictions to that. First off, they dragged their heels when it came to providing any stimulus at all.
Projects may avoid federal review Cabinet okays exemptions Infrastructure work to be funded without environmental-impact studies By MIKE DE SOUZA, Canwest News Service November 16, 2009
More than 90 per cent of the thousands of new infrastructure projects across the country are slated to get funding from the Conservative government without being required to undergo a federal assessment of their environmental impact, Canwest News Service has learned.
Although environmental assessments are generally required for projects that receive federal funding, exemptions were approved by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet last spring to speed up the approval process on certain types of projects with small budgets.
The small percentage of environmental assessments is the result of a program designed to kick-start projects and avoid extensive consultations that would "slow projects and threaten Canada's economic recovery," the government said.
"Large-scale projects that could potentially impact the environment were generally not eligible for the infrastructure stimulus fund," said Chris Day, a spokesman for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister John Baird.
"They may be considered for funding under other envelopes with longer timelines."
As a result, out of more than 3,000 projects that were approved for funding under the government's multibillion-dollar infrastructure stimulus fund this year, only two per cent will go through a federal process to evaluate their environmental footprint, according to Day.
Only 15 per cent of more than 1,200 projects approved for funding as part of the government's Building Canada fund for new infrastructure required the federal environmental assessment, he explained.
But some projects may still require a provincial assessment.
The exemptions for federal assessments were not introduced through legislation in Parliament and have been challenged in court by two environmental organizations, Ecojustice and the Sierra Club of Canada.
"It seems like they (members of the Harper government) are just making decisions arbitrarily," said Justin Duncan, a staff lawyer at Ecojustice.
The new figures were released following a scathing report this month by the federal environment commissioner, Scott Vaughan, that questioned whether the government is doing enough to find out whether its assessments were preventing adverse environmental effects from new projects.
Francine Richard, who directed the research on environmental assessments for the commissioner's report, said the federal process sometimes consisted only of a checklist of questions about whether there would be negative impacts.
"That's not sufficient,' she said. "We expect at least one sentence or something saying, 'This is not ... a concern and this is why.' "
Vaughan has recommended the government consider its findings as it does a scheduled review of the federal environmental-assessment legislation in the next year.
Environment Minister Jim Prentice has said he accepts the commissioner's recommendations. At the time it introduced the exemptions, the federal government acknowledged in its notice that it had not done any specific consultations on the package, and there could be a risk of negative consequences for the environment.
In the past, even with pork barreling, signs promoting government sponsored programs, included recognition of all levels of government involved in the process.
Not so with the Reformers. They want all the credit, so have told the provinces to get their own damn signs. And worse, they have told the struggling municipalities that they will have to pay for signs to match those paid for by us already.
This of course means that provinces have to spend needlessly, the municipalities have to spend needlessly and the Reform Conservatives get their tax payer fund self-promotion, and it doesn't cost their party a dime.
Instead the Canadian taxpayer is hit up THREE times to promote a single project. Yeah!
Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter says he was surprised by the federal government's recent decision to put its own sign on infrastructure projects without provincial or municipal logos attached.
Signs announcing projects, such as new buildings and highway improvements, previously featured logos from various levels of government to show who provided the funding. Over the summer, the federal government told the provinces that if the provincial or municipal governments want to be credited, they need to get their own signs ....
Of course this is the same Keddy of the Conservative logo on the cheque, so I don't think people see this. They believe the money is coming from the Conservative Party of Canada.
One of the tests of a government is how well it handles a crisis. The Harper government failed us on the H1N1, resorting to their usual blame game. However, it would appear that their economic action plan is another dud. An extravaganza ad campaign, financed by the taxpayers, but much of the money went to areas that didn't need stimulating at all.
Now it's easy to say that there was a sense of urgency, but if that was the case, how were they able to so cleverly funnel the money into their own ridings, focusing on those of cabinet minsters or seats they risked losing? It took a lot of effort, so why not put a little effort into determining which places in Canada were the most vulnerable?
The Canada Press conducted a study into the spending and found that "Areas that benefit most from spending measures have unemployment rates below provincial averages."
Canada's high jobless regions are losing out as billions in federal stimulus money flows into areas that have been spared the worst of the recession, an analysis by The Canadian Press suggests.
In six provinces, areas that benefit most from stimulus spending actually have unemployment rates well below the provincial average.
Stimulus dollars for British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have been poured into regions where workers have been faring comparatively well.
And the area that has seen Canada's most serious deterioration in employment – the Cariboo region in the B.C. Interior – has seen no special treatment from the federal stimulus plan.
“We need to look at creating jobs. And I don't see that happening,” said Robert Leclerc, president of the Quesnel and District Labour Council, in the Cariboo. “I feel sorry for the pulp mill workers. Who knows what they're going to do?”
There is no easy way to account for jobs created by the $16-billion spending program. Unlike in the United States, Canadian officials did not ask funding recipients to provide information on job creation. Instead, Ottawa relies on a macro-economic formula to estimate how much employment should result.
To determine whether stimulus money has been flowing to areas struggling to deal with the recession, The Canadian Press crunched its own numbers to link spending to unemployment rates.
The analysis follows a similar but separate Canadian Press study that found the stimulus money was heavily biased in favour of Conservative ridings.
The first in-depth independent analysis of federal stimulus spending shows Conservative ridings received millions more than ridings represented by opposition MPs.
The investigation -- a two-week project by the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the Citizen and journalism students from Ottawa's Algonquin College -- found that across the country, Conservative ridings took in $4.7 billion, more than half of the $8.5 billion announced under the federal government's Building Canada infrastructure program, mostly for paving, water, sewer and transit programs.
The analysis found that the federal government has announced, on average, $32.8 million in infrastructure spending in each Conservative riding, $9.2 million more than in opposition ridings.
The riding that received the most money -- $247 million -- is Liberal Ken Dryden's York Centre, which benefits from a third of the largest single infrastructure project in the country, the $697-million York Subway Extension, which cuts across three Toronto ridings. However, this shouldn't have been included in the Action Plan total because this project was approved in 2007, long before the recession hit.
I stumbled across a website from YouTube, called Fake Action Plan. The group that runs the site has suggested that the Canada Action Plan was nothing more than an advertising gimmick; long on promise and short on any results.
As the Reform Conservatives continue to stonewall the Parliamentary Budget Officer, and economists are warning that Canada is not as sound as Flaherty and Harper would lead us to believe, this should be yet another wake up call.
Show me the money. That's what I am hearing from everyone when I mention the stimulus spending that our government keeps talking about. Canadians are still losing their jobs and businesses are still closing their doors but all we hear about in the media is how much money is starting to flow.
Where did all the stimulus money go?
The fact is, most of the money that was intended to stimulate the economy is still sitting in the bank. Some has already been wasted on frivolous projects like rink upgrades or routine building maintenance and huge sums went to bailout the corporate welfare club.
Unfortunately the more important projects aren't underway yet and shovels haven't even broken ground. The time they should have started these projects was last summer. That means most of the work will have to wait until next spring if it ever starts at all ....
