Action Plan Infrastructure Inquiry Needed
We need to question the authenticity of Stephen Harper’s Canadian Economic Action Plan.
Last year, I suggested that it would translate to a $60 billion marketing plan for the Conservatives.
Many other publishers are starting to agree with this perspective:
- http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100908/national/tories_sign_obsession
- http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/727821–travers-top-bureaucrats-bracing-for-stimulus-scandal
- http://bondpapers.blogspot.com/2010/01/massive-cost-overruns-delays-now-normal.html
- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/delays-could-cost-cities-provinces-stimulus-cash-report-warns/article1666763/
- http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/08/09/pbo-stimulus-spending.html?ref=rss
To quote from one article:
Millions of dollars in taxpayer stimulus cash doled out by the Harper government was conditional upon project managers putting up federal promotional signs, The Canadian Press has learned.
What were the objectives of Canada’s Economic Action Plan? Were they to generate long-term jobs with a healthy infrastructure for future generations or was it all about lining the pockets of conservative supporters and friends?
Or were key ridings showered with cash in order to shore up support for the Cons in the next election, as this article with the Globe suggest: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/key-tory-ridings-in-quebec-showered-in-stimulus-money-study/article1665981/
Did the Action Plan actually have objectives like the following:
- Clean water for all Canadians
- Top-notch digital infrastructure
- State-of-the-art hospitals or schools
- Advanced research facilities for new technologies
The central concern here is that Canadians are being fleeced by the Stephen Harper regime in exchange for loose diatribe about ‘economic recovery’. Our tax dollars are financing billion-dollar boondoggles and we need an inquiry into the scope and effectiveness of this ‘action plan’.
We need a review of where the money has been spent, if it has been spent at all.
I’d like to see the following in a table of details related to the Canadian Economic Action Plan:
- Project
- Money Spent
- Riding
- MP Name
- Party Affiliation
- Category (identify 20+ categories like ‘Schools’, ‘Hospital’, Clean Water, Energy Infrastructure, etc
- Employment (# of jobs created, total person-hours, average wage, job title, duration of project, etc)
- Beneficiary (contractor hired, affiliation with MP, Conservatives, donations made in the past)
Only by thoroughly exploring the expenditures that took place across the country will we be able to determine the true economic impact of the ‘Action Plan’ and who benefitted from it.
A crowd-sourced listing would be the most ideal way to generate a full inventory of these projects and what their supposed impact was on the economy. Only once we’re all able to see the waste in its bigger picture will we truly resent the waste that’s been thrust upon us.