Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Never let a crisis go to waste

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, September 8, 2010 7:55pm - 0 Comments

In a follow-up to yesterday’s report, CP’s Bruce Cheadle details at even further depth the government’s concerns and demands for signage.

“Although progress in the installation of signage had been slowed due to seasonal limitations, departments and agencies managed to increase the number of signs erected from 58 per cent to 65 per cent of the total number of signs to be installed,” Wayne Wouters, the powerful clerk of the Privy Council, wrote in a March 8, 2010, memorandum to the prime minister.

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,” Wouters wrote of the winter conditions.

Tags: economy, infrastructure, Privy Council Office, Stephen Harper, stimulus, Wayne Wouter

More by Aaron Wherry

http://secondthots.blogspot.com Dennis_F

or another vindication of the Conservative government that this blog doesn't jump on — on a big and important stimulus issue, no less.

Holly Stick

Oh sure. A report that has not been tabled yet and I wonder if it has been completed yet. Ivison's informant is "People with knowledge of the report’s contents" which soon turns into "The source". An anonymous source? Ooh, that's convincing.

Or is it the Government of Harper trying to do pre-emptive damage control?

Jenn_

"The source said the audit will likely reveal that Conservative ridings have secured the bulk of stimulus spending"

You've got to hand it to Dennis F and his version of 'vindication' don't you?

I'd be interested in knowing if Ms. Fraser's 'wrath' would come down if she added the advertising budget to the partisan deployment.

Cats

What's your point ?

Geographically the CPC ridings contain the most area. Rural areas are the most neglected and in the need of the most new infrastructure.

Cats!

Cats

Its called the excluded middle.

Conservatives win rural ridings. Rural ridings need infrastructure. Therefore, Conservative ridings need infrastructure!

Example – a program to repair highways.

Which ridings have the most km of highways ?? Might it be spares, spread out rural ones ?

Pathetic cats, vindicated by Frasier CATS, your media firestorm overthrown, debunked, discredited, lying in ruins, no more birds or fish for you!
Jenn_

Thanks, Cats!

Because I've just been on a road trip to Northern Ontario. It is really hurting in my opinion. Not Northern Ontario like Muskoka who are nearly as rich as ever, but Northern Ontario like Kapuskasing, Thunder Bay, Manitoulin Island, Sault Ste Marie, etc. Big ridings all. Guess what? They are not held by Conservatives.

BTW, driving around was awesome! The Economic Action Plan had finished with a lot of the highways (still there were places with construction continuing) and they were smooth and practically empty and fun! (And gorgeous scenery) Still, the towns and cities could have used some Economic Action Plan help too. And I don't think I saw a single sign outside of the ones on the highways.
madeyoulook

BTW, driving around was awesome!

Polar bear killer.
Jenn_

Yeah, I know. But it seemed a shame to let all those shiny new roads go to waste. Besides, I supported our tourism industry where it was desperately needed, rather than take an airplane out of the country. I did trade in my van for a more fuel efficient vehicle, if that helps.
madeyoulook

You see, Jenn, I was mocking the climate wackos there. I don't think you got the joke, and instead you allowed the wacko position to make you feel guilty about engaging in economic activity.

But your attempt at justification sounds a lot like how the hypocritical climate wackos go about justifying their ignoring of their own pronouncements on how the rest of us should behave.

"I'll believe it's a crisis when those who keep telling me it's a crisis start acting like it's a crisis."
Jenn_

You see, MYL, I knew you were mocking. But it did get me on the defensive anyway, and I was quick to justify my errant behaviour. But then it occurred to me that I was actually justifying my errant behaviour, so I posted it.

I took out the last line, which was "Got anything else for me to justify" because I didn't think you'd get it. I don't know why I took away the punchline and posted the thing anyway. I really, really need IntenseDebates to refuse my comments when the sleep deprivation hits my brain.
tedbetts

Um, no.

Anyone in the infrastructure industry, and I am, knows that the infrastructure needs of cities are far greater. And obviously so because there are far more people, Duh! Which means more roads, more power lines, more hospitals, more ports, more transit, more rail, more of everything. A big open field of hay does not need any infrastructure! Duh!

But to further put the lie to your falsehood, there is not only Jenn's comment below but the counter evidence in Quebec. The Bloc hold almost all of the rural ridings and yet it is still the Conservative ridings that garner the most stimulus money.

Even worse for your argument, when you look at which Conservative ridings are getting all this pork and favouratism, it is urban Conservative ridings.

Cats spending too much time sitting in its own litter. Again.
Reverend_Blair

"A big open field of hay does not need any infrastructure! "

I beg to differ. Having hauled hay, especially back in the days when small bales were lifted by hand, every hay field should have, at a minimum, a large swimming pool and a small bar for infrastructure.

http://secondthots.blogspot.com Dennis_F

What does it say about the merit of your position, or your credibility, that you have to post an uncompleted sentence? Here's the part you purposely kept from us:

but the evidence is not stark enough to bring down Ms. Fraser’s wrath.

Indeed.

http://secondthots.blogspot.com Dennis_F

Telling people that the report will exonerate them, when it will do the opposite, is not damage control. It is suicide, which is probably why Ivison's report has some merit, and why the Liberals are already pounding their fists on the table — again.
Dave

John Taber or Jane Ivison?

s_c_f

Wherry, that's one of your fav topics!

I'm sure you were so excited about exposing tory boondoggles. I'm sure you'll be able to fabricate something regardless, as before.

john g

He did the same thing for the Toronto Parks and Recs funding "scandal". But when the facts emerged that George Smitherman came out to defend the integrity of the funds allocation, and it later emerged that Toronto had 117 out of 130 funding requests approved, thus destroying the myth that Toronto was getting shafted on the Parks & Rec funding, you never learned that from Aaron.

s_c_f

He did the same thing with the Suuad Mohamud "scandal", He milked it for 10,000 posts, leveling all kinds of accusations of incompetence and racism (mostly indirectly by linking to others). Eventually, when the facts came out (which took time because the government was respecting her privacy), and it was revealed that the customs officials and the government had acted professionally, Wherry dropped the topic abruptly and completely. He did not retract any of the accusations of incompetence and racism leveled at the customs officials, foreign affairs, the cabinet and the PM. http://www2.macleans.ca/category/mohuamud/

Can't let the facts get in the way of an attack on the government.

He did the same for the swine flu "scandal". http://www2.macleans.ca/tag/swine-flu/
For that story, however, Andrew Coyne picked up the slack and posted a fair summary: http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/11/29/latest-swine-f…

And then they complain about media access to the government.
s_c_f

He did the same for the body bags "scandal". He posted two statements by the government, one embarrassing and the second a government apology.
http://www2.macleans.ca/tag/body-bags/

Later it was revealed that the body bags had been ordered by the first nations community and the government had simply filled the order , and therefore had nothing to be embarrassed or apologetic about, and there was nary a peep from this wonderful news blog. Of course by the time the information had been released by the gov't, the media already had leveled a thousand accusations of racism and incompetence.

Can't let the facts detract from a government attack.

Emily

As usual, Cons are more concerned with petty nonsense than with real problems….like jobs.

Or bridges, or overpasses, or highways…..

http://secondthots.blogspot.com Dennis_F

It's Wherry who's posting about this stuff instead of the article I linked to, which is about the stimulus doing what the Conservatives always said it would do. Bashing political opponents for every little nonsense has never been a particularly effective strategy, or one that builds credibility. But it doesn't stop some from continuing to engage in it. Curious.

Geiseric

Secret!!!

Too funny.
madeyoulook

“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,” Wouters wrote of the winter conditions.

"Other temporary [signage] measures" for winter conditions…

They peed in the snow?
Holly Stick

The comments on that article at the Goat and Snail are excoriating and often hilarious.
Holly Stick

How come the memo was marked secret? How come the number of signs wasn't blacked out like all those documents about detainees being tortured in Afghanistan?

Geiseric

Because with that crowd numbers ARE torture.

tedbetts

And we are the tortured.

hosertohoosier

What is so bad about putting up signs? One goal of a stimulus is to restore consumer confidence. A highly visible stimulus will do a better job of convincing the public that a recovery is likely than one people do not notice. Nor is this some unprecedented scheme – go inside any building constructed with PWA money, and you will see a plaque, plus FDR's name.

http://scottdiatribe.canflag.com/ Scott_Tribe

Oh I don't know.. maybe because the government has been shown to be more concerned about how much propaganda it has out there.. rather then you know. .actually tracking how many jobs their stimulus has provided (or hasnt) and how efficient/effective the money has been spent?

Isnt that what you Conservatives would be screaming about if a Liberal government was doing a stimulus program? When the shoe's on the other foot however, it appears propaganda is more important.. and efficient spending of tax dollars gets overlooked.

hosertohoosier

For starters, I would think a lefty of all people would understand the basic premise of a stimulus package. However apparently your blind partisanship has obscured even your grasp of Keynesian economics. Stimulus spending creates jobs through the spending multiplier. Government spending on certain activities essentially gets recycled through the economy many times over. Tracking jobs created directly is not feasible.

As for how effectively the money has been spent… you know… the auditor-general is about to release her report.

I'm not sure exactly how much has been spent on signs, but in the US it represents .02% of the total costs. You are right that down there, where the shoe is on the other foot, it is the right that is whining about the cost of signs
( http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/signs-stimulus/sto… ). And as we know, everybody who agrees with the tea party on anything is a racist.

As for me, I pledge to not give a crap about small amounts of money spent on signs, regardless of who is in office. Signs can help inform voters of white elephants while also aiding in the restoration of consumer confidence. This is why they have been used by governments of every stripe for decades. You can either join me on the side of sanity on this one, or continue to live in echo-chamber land, its up to you, really.

hosertohoosier

NB: you can create the jobs created directly, but it is not a meaningful statistic.

hosertohoosier

Bah, you can track the jobs created directly, but it is not meaningful since the jobs created indirectly will vary considerably depending upon the multiplier effect.

Out There

It's not the cost of the signs that is the problem. Having them is a good idea. It's not even a bad thing that governments put up signs to promote their spending initiatives.

The problem I have with the Conservatives' obsession with signs is that the signs seem to be the first priority for the government, not the things that the signs are in front of. And the Tories seem obsessed to it to the point of demanding GPS locations for every sign.

And, from one report, the Prime Minister himself seems to be demanding information on the signs. Shouldn't that stuff be handled by somebody lower in the food chain, so that the PM can concentrate on, say, governing the country?

(And why was the report on the signage stamped Secret? God forbid that our enemies find out how many Economic Action Plan signs have been put up – revealing that information to an unauthorized source could bring our nation to its knees.)

Dave

GPS locations help in building the Google maps.
hosertohoosier

Caring about signs is a sign that the government fears the electorate. For better or for worse, this is an inherent characteristic of democratic rule.

DerekPearce

Sign Sign everywhere a sign
Tories plastin' scenery breaking my mind
Muskoka, fake lake, gazebo read the si-iiiiigggn….
Loraine Lamontagne

How can we know how much has been spent on signs when the federal government dictates that those who receive the stimulus money must pay for the signs and must buy them from a supplier chosen by the government?

I don't know how Fraser could get to the bottom of this. She only reviews federal spending. The signs are not. It's my federal tax money being spent, but not by the federal government.
Loraine Lamontagne

Anyone knows who the designated signmakers are?

She noted that the group also had to pay for the $59 “Economic Action Plan” sign and order it from a specified signmaker in Dartmouth, N.S. “There seemed to be a lot of emphasis on signs,” she said.
(Globe and Mail)

Werthit

What happens to the sign once a project is finished – recycled or reused for election posters?

ex-canuck

Petty, petty, petty. Go find a cause, Mr Wherry. (why do I read you anyway)?
john g

Wherry, was your choice of title for this post a shot at Obama as well?