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February 25, 2004

Reg Alcock, President of the Treasury Board and the man in charge of reviewing all government spending, has spent the last year voicing damning condemnation upon the government's regional economic agencies, and specifically Western Economic Diversification.  This was long in advance of Mr. Alcock getting into Cabinet.

Now it seems as though that position, in the midst of a "spending freeze" announced by Mr. Alcock in December, has now suddenly evolved into support, as the four principal federal economic development agencies -- in Quebec, Northern Ontario, and Western and Atlantic Canada -- will get substantial increases in "grants and contributions" budgets to the tune of $103.8 million.

This is extremely timely, considering Liberal members in the west are reeling and scared for their electoral fortunes, including Mr. Martin's two most powerful Cabinet Ministers, Ralph Goodale from Saskatchewan and Anne McLellan from Alberta.  This also goes for Mr. Alcock in his Winnipeg riding.

It is so very funny how government initiatives once described as a "waste of money" and "sloppy" in Mr. Alcock's pre-Cabinet pontifications can suddenly turn into political darlings that deserve additional funding. 

This is of course only a tiny spec of the $10 billion in new spending announced by the federal government yesterday.  Interesting items include a 20% increase in spending for the Privy Council Office, the public service branch of the Prime Minister's Office (in spite of Paul Martin's campaign commitments to decentralize power from the PMO) and $564 million to cover public servants' job benefits, in spite of promises to reign in the bureaucracy and administration of government. 

The Paul Martin politics, and in fact governance of convenience, continues.

Comments? jonathan@tdhstrategies.com