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Driven To Distractions©
The Sound of One Hand Clapping©

A rchive Date
[ 01-11-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
      [http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/weston.html

      There's no end to wild spending
      By GREG WESTON - Sun Media
      November 1, 2002
      OTTAWA - In the same week that Finance Minister John Manley is calling for economic caution and promising to slash government waste, his fellow Liberal ministers are merrily raiding the public purse for almost $6 billion to cover overruns in their budgets, barely halfway through the current fiscal year.

      In his first major economic statement as finance minister, Manley set out a plan Wednesday that relies in large measure on the elimination of obsolete and otherwise useless government programs in order to fund health care and other pressing needs. But Manley had barely left the microphones when a fat compendium of $5.8 billion of federal overspending - officially called the supplementary estimates - landed in the Commons for what has become parliamentary rubber-stamping.

      (As a matter of comparative magnitude, that amount of money would probably cover most of the improvements to national health care recommended by various recent committees and commissions.)

      Here are some of the latest ways the feds have found to blow your hard-earned tax dollars:
        * Earlier this year, the RCMP overspent its already huge budget by a whopping $45 million to provide policing for the G8 summit and Jean Chretien photo-op at Kananaskis, Alta. Notably, the force was downright austere in providing all other "public security and anti-terrorism activities," requiring only $1.9 million.
        * Never shy to pilfer our pockets, MPs are giving themselves another $1 million for salaries and benefits, plus an additional $4 million to run the Commons.
        * The current investigations by the RCMP and auditor general into government sponsorship and advertising programs certainly haven't curtailed the cheque-writing in the federal propaganda shop, with another $7.8 million disappearing from the public purse on top of the staggering $125 million already earmarked for federal fluff.
        * Sheila Copps' heritage department is grabbing another $82 million for all manner of dubious programs and handouts, including $34 million for "identity and multiculturalism programming."
      In total, the cash grab represents a mid-year budget overrun of almost 10% for a minister who fancies herself the next prime minister running the entire government.

        * Those responsible for our prisons spent $1.4 million on "events and program activities related to international summits" (let your imagination fly), and another $27 million to "address workload pressures."
        * As usual, Canada's spy service is being ever so coy, helping itself to another $5.3 million of public funds with no explanation beyond "other subsidies and payments."
        * The National Capital Commission, the agency which turns federal tax dollars into tulips and other Ottawa-area adornments, has managed to transform its budget into a national sinkhole with cost overruns of almost 30%.
        * The Canada Customs and Revenue Agency is grabbing another $52 million "to address operational workload pressures and pursue revenue generation initiatives." Just what the country needs, more tax collectors.
        * While Manley is asking the federal bureaucracy to look for ways to shave spending on programs for all Canadians, his government has also approved pay raises in the public service totalling $631 million.
        * You can always tell when Canada's cash-strapped armed forces are off trying to fight a war, in this case the anti-terrorism campaign in Afghanistan. The first clue is national defence has run up a budget shortfall of $439 million. The second clue may speak volumes about the readiness of the Canadian military machine today - $64 million of the total in cost overruns during the war effort has been for "rentals."
        * Finally, even the federal watchdog of government spending, Auditor General Sheila Fraser, has had to rattle her department's tin cup for an additional $2.4 million.

      It may be small consolation to hardworking Canadian taxpayers, but most of Fraser's extra funding will probably be needed to cover all the current investigations into Liberal spending and contracting scandals.

      Greg Weston is Sun Media's national political columnist, his columns appear Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
      Letters to the editor should be sent to       editor@sunpub.com



      World Fact Book (CIA)]


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