Access to Information Request

REGINA: Internal government documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) show the province's Our Future is Wide Open campaign is $2.3 million over it's original budget of $2 million set last October.

"The worst-kept secret in Saskatchewan is that the Wide Open Future is a taxpayer funded pre-writ campaign to re-elect the NDP," said CTF Saskatchewan director David MacLean. "And now, adding salt to taxpayer wounds, the province is 113 per cent over budget after only nine months of what is intended to be a three-year campaign," MacLean said.

"If this was NDP money as opposed to tax dollars, do you think they would be this far over budget " asked MacLean. "At current spending, we can expect the campaign to cost $17 million after it runs it's planned three-year course."

Internal documents reveal campaign's true motives, ineffectiveness
A government-contracted study examining the effectiveness of the campaign indicates that the "executional target" audience of the Our Future is Wide Open campaign is Saskatchewan residents aged 18-49.

" Lorne Calvert stood before 200 people on November 4, 2002 and told them it's time to tell the world what a great place Saskatchewan is to live, work and do business," said MacLean. "This study proves Calvert's sincerity is suspect. This campaign was never intended to tell the world anything, it was aimed at changing the voting public's perception that their government performing poorly."

The study indicates that only 58 per cent of Saskatchewan residents are aware of the campaign and recommends that at least nine more months of advertising and polling will be required to gage the effectiveness of this "social marketing" campaign.

"Any recognition of this campaign probably has more to do with the negative publicity it has generated rather than the effectiveness of the ads," said MacLean. "In a time where our cattle industry is at a stand still and our economy lags behind other jurisdictions, it's appalling this government would waste $4.3 million on a thinly-veiled partisan advertising campaign."