The Liberals and Progressive Conservatives are proving least accountable with public dollars when it comes to attaching price tags to their big-spending election promises, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said Wednesday.
Kevin Taft's Liberals have rolled out 40 provincial election promises (not including tax breaks) in the first nine days of the campaign that would require additional government spending, the federation said. But the party has provided cost breakdowns for only four of those promises - which alone total nearly $600 million.
Ed Stelmach's governing Tories have only made 16 spending promises so far in the four-week campaign but Stelmach was criticized for a flurry of spending announcements just before the election call. Only two Conservative commitments made during the campaign - cash for an Edmonton-area park and a Calgary science centre - have been costed out and are worth a total of $90 million.
"We have parties that go out making wild promises ... then they have to scramble to either fulfill their promises by raising taxes or going into deficit," said Scott Hennig, Alberta director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. "We need to stop rewarding parties that make wild promises." .... He noted the Tories appetite for election-time spending amounted to nearly $1.3 billion in announcements by the 12-day span leading up to the provincial election being called
Taft has made forty (40) spending promises in just 9 days. That's more than 4 a day. Keep it up and the Liberals will have made more than 124 spending promises by election day.
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