• Conservative spending promises

OTTAWA: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today updated its tally of pre-election spending announcements made by the Conservative government to $19.2-billion. The timetable is June 2nd to September 6th, the day before the start of the federal election campaign. This is roughly $198-million a day and more than $8.2-million every hour.

Last Thursday, the CTF estimated total pre-election spending to be $8.8-billion. This amount did not identify a $6.2-billion infrastructure spending announcement for the province of Ontario made on July 24. The information was not included on the federal government's transportation department webpage although it was posted by the Ontario government and later found on the Government of Canada's website. In addition, Stephen Harper's Conservative government announced some $4-billion more in additional federal spending on September 4th, 5th and 6th. For an updated breakdown of all identified expenditures -- CLICK HERE.

The 2008 budget set spending growth at 3.4 per cent this fiscal year. The department of finance reported last month that expenditures grew by 11.1 per cent in June alone and swelled an eye-popping 8.4 per cent in the first three months of the year. This is two-and-a-half times the 2008 budget plan.

"The Conservatives continue to claim they will still hit 3.4 per cent in spending growth for the year, but they've proven throughout their term in office that they can't stop themselves from spending," said CTF research director Adam Taylor. "Their first budget called for Ottawa's expenditures to grow by 5.4 per cent in fiscal 2006/07. At the end of that year government receipts had jumped by 7.5 per cent. The 2007 budget plan announced an additional 5.6 per cent spending hike. The real amount in 2007/08 was a 6.9 per cent increase."