Wednesday, September 08, 2010

"Our Conservative Government Is Focusing On The Issues That Matter Most To Canadians."

Quite honestly, this is just an astounding read:
And the government was so concerned with the placement of “Economic Action Plan” signage that Prime Minister Stephen Harper received briefing notes on the sign count from Canada’s top civil servant...

The “Update on Signage” memo, marked “Secret” and obtained by The Canadian Press under Access to Information, goes on to list the total number of signs – 5,275 – installed to that date. It cites 3,840 more that “have been ordered or are in production.”

“Departments have been using alternative methods for signage installation in order to sustain visibility by placing signs in windows, on buildings or employing other temporary measures,” Mr. Wouters wrote of the winter conditions.

The signage was so critical, in the government's estimation, that contracts for project funding hold back up to 20 per cent of the federal cash until a “certificate of substantial completion” is filed – including photographic proof of sign installation and, in some cases, Global Positioning System co-ordinates of the sign's exact location.

Stunning...

The opposition should be ALL OVER THIS ONE.

10 comments:

penlan said...

What a waste of time for all 18 Govt. depts. This is what we pay them to do per orders of Harper. They should be doing the work of the Dept. for the people, not Harper's bidding for his Con Party. Crass, stupid, devious, insane.

I do hope Ignatieff & the Libs, along with the rest of the opposition jump right on this.

Steve V said...

That where signs were placed reached the PM's desk is scandalous.

penlan said...

The micro-manager wants ALL the minutae of each sign. That's a sign of sickness - no pun intended. GPS included.

CuJoYYC said...

I see a Liberal ad with all the EAP signs, the secret memos and this as background music.
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/signs/id309416460?i=309416463

"Signs" Five Man Electrical Band.

And for a bonus, it's a Canadian band. :-)

Jon Dursi said...

The “Update on Signage” memo, marked “Secret”...


And people seriously argued that the Afghan Detainee inquiries should just trust the government's redactions and classifications? The Update on Signage memo was marked Secret? WTF?

Steve V said...

Makes you think they knew this attention to signage was potentially embarassing doesn't it?

weeble said...

Fundamentally, it is putting politics ahead of people who are needing work. Every $ spent on a sign is one which could have been used to employ someone.
Worse is the wasted money with having taxpayer funded people checking this all out.....I would prefer that people employed by Fisheries actually work on what matters to Canadians.
the only good thing...the signs make good firewood when people have no money for fuel this winter and are cold.

Steve V said...

We know how many signs now, only a matter of time until somebody does the math.

Steve V said...

As an aside, Ivison someone found a source in the PMO, to tell him that this AG report on stimulus spending might not be the "smoking gun" the opposition was banking on. If that's true, from a strategic point of view, all the more important to focus on this sort of abuse, partisanship before people.

Tof KW said...

...this AG report on stimulus spending might not be the "smoking gun" the opposition was banking on.

OK maybe it's not as bad a report for the government as it could be, but the AG report being a clean report card is somewhat hard to believe considering all the billions that got out the door in such a short time-span. That alone was 80% of the problem with the sponsorship scandal, and it's the reason all the usual risk management 'checks and balances' exist in the system. Flaherty himself admitted in the House of Commons that expediting that much spending would inevitably result in some landing in places it probably shouldn't have.

Also I don't necessarily trust John Ivison regarding his neutrality in political reporting.