REGINA: The Saskatchewan government continues to refuse to disclose to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) the original amount budgeted for the "Our Future is Wide Open" campaign, and will not disclose how much has been spent since the campaign was launched.

The request for "Our Future is Wide Open" budget documents was made after the CTF obtained information from Saskatchewan Industry and Resources in July indicating that the province had spent $4.3 million dollars in the first nine months of the campaign. This figure was $2.3 million more than was indicated at the news conference officially launching the campaign in November of 2002.

Industry and Resources Minister Eric Cline responded in a July 18 Regina Leader Post article that the CTF claim was "-absolutely false." In that same article, Industry and Resources spokesperson Debbie Wilkie stated that the original budget was for $2 million in the first year and $2 million in the second year.

A review of government documents announcing the campaign does not confirm the department's assertion that $4.3 million was originally budgeted for the campaign. In July, the CTF asked for documents relating to the original budget but received no response. A written request for the documents through Freedom of Information legislation was denied on the grounds that the budget was considered to be "advice to Cabinet" and therefore exempt from public disclosure.

Repeated informal attempts to obtain documentation have been denied by department staff.

"If the department has nothing to hide, why wouldn't they just hand over the documents " asked CTF Saskatchewan director David MacLean. "Taxpayers have a right to know how much was originally projected to be spent on the campaign, how much was actually spent in the first 12 months of the campaign, and how much they plan to spend in the future. There is no moral or legal justification for keeping taxpayers in the dark," added MacLean.

"The government is abusing legitimate Cabinet confidence by using it to hide financial information to which the public is entitled," said MacLean. "How much have they spent on this campaign If they won't come clean on this simple issue, what else are they hiding "