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Under pressure to show they're spending, ministers hit the road to, er, spend

by DavidAkin on Tue 19 May 2009 10:00 AM EDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos

MPs are on a break this week from the House of Commons and that means, without the requirement to be present for Question Period or committee meetings, they are travelling about the country.

Government MPs, but particularly ministers, will be busy here and there making various funding announcements all week, as they try to demonstrate that any criticism that they've been slow to get stimulus funding out the door is opposition hogwash. As usual, we'll be tracking the spending announcements on Twitter under the hashtag #ottawaspends. Feel free to jump in there. (You can follow me on Twitter @davidakin or take a look at the left hand side of this page for my live-Twitter feed or, finally, simply point your browser at this site.)

On deck so far today:

In Calgary, Environment Minister Jim Prentice is up at noon local time at the Stampede Victoria Park LRT Station for an infrastructure announcement.
Revenue Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn was in St. Hyacinthe, Que. this morning to announce funding for a food inspection agency lab.
Heritage Minister James Moore is in Quebec City at the Musee de la Civilisation for a 1 pm announcement to prove yet again that "Conservatives support culture!"
Labour Minister Rona Ambrose is in Edmonton for a 1430 funding announcement at the Rapid Fire Theatre Society.
Saskatchewan MP Andrew Scheer has an announcement in Regina at 1000.
Ontario MP Rick Norlock is in Kingston, Ont. this evening at 1930 to hand out some money.
Ontario MP Greg Rickford is in Dryden to give money to seniors at the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation.

#ottawaspends

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Re: Under pressure to show they're spending, ministers hit the road to, er, spend

by Gabby in QC on Tue 19 May 2009 07:42 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

From the link provided:
"Infrastructure
Liberals say Tories too slow with cash
… But Liberals say that's not quick enough. The budget passed months ago to get stimulus cash out the door quickly, said Hall Findlay. ..."
To be more precise, the budget received Royal Assent March 12, 2009, TWO months ago, not m o n t h s ago as stated by Ms. Findlay.

I wonder if the Liberals are also criticizing their new found idol, President Obama? He apparently has been experiencing the same difficulty in getting the money out as quickly as possible.
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=1607252
Reality bites
Published: Tuesday, May 19, 2009
"... On economics and the environment, too, he [President Obama] is finding it harder to intervene than he imagined. His administration has released only 6% of its stimulus money so far. It has found it almost impossible to determine which banks deserve bailouts and which bad assets the federal government should take off companies' hands. ..."

Back here, even if the money does go out quickly, there’s always some more consultation required …
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/national/200905/12/01-855600-echangeur-turcot-un-projet-a-contretemps.php [Translation]
“The impact of the proposed reconstruction of the Turcot Interchange, in south-west Montreal, should be assessed against other major road construction and many public transit projects already planned for the city’s east-west axis.

That was what the representatives of about fifty local, regional and provincial groups and organizations sought on the opening of public consultations conducted by the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE) on the proposed $1.5 billion project planned by the Quebec Ministry of Transport (MTQ). … "

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