Cutting Thru The Left Wing Negativity......

John Ivison: Don't buy the spin, stimulus is flowing

Posted: June 08, 2009, 9:17 PM by Ron Nurwisah

The second Report to Canadians on the progress of the Conservative government’s $40-billion, two-year economic action plan is due this week. Its arrival is sure to spark a fresh outbreak of ill-informed speculation about an August election, as the opposition parties plunge into a sea of platitudes about the government’s failure to get “money out the door.”

This is patently unfair. Every day there are news releases detailing how the government is rolling out its action plan, such as the $16,000 recently earmarked for the seniors of New Maryland, N.B., to socialize at the village Step’n Tyme class.

You might not agree that the government should be funding step dancing for seniors, but there is no doubt that it is. Money is starting to flow to major infrastructure projects too, even if John Baird, the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, is finding it harder to give money away than he anticipated.

The real problem is not that it has taken this long to get the money flowing. Rather, it’s that the government was foolish enough in its budget to give the impression that the whole process would be done and dusted within 120 days (in fact, the Conservatives said “measures to support the economy must begin within the next 120 days to be most effective”).

To those in the private sector, the bureaucracy moves at the pace of coastal erosion. But to those who work in the public service, governing takes time because the public interest is at stake, decisions have to be reviewed and stakeholders brought onside.

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