Silly Little Country

A Stimulus for Signmakers

This really is appalling and typical of politicians - puffing about what they do with our money, and at our expense.

Municipalities are being told if they want federal infrastructure cash, they have to pay for and install additional signs at each project promoting the federal government's economic action plan.
The signs can cost between $1,000 and $7,000 apiece. That, when multiplied by the thousands of projects approved, means municipalities could spend as much as $45 million on the four-coloured signs — which have the same visual style as the government's $100 million advertising campaign promoting its economic action plan.
"For $45 million, the Conservative government could hire 3,000 extra nurses, or double the number of vaccination sites, or extend the hours of operation to accelerate flu vaccinations," Liberal MP Ralph Goodale said in the House of Commons Wednesday. "Local tax dollars are being forced to finance Conservative propaganda."
The Liberals also say that by forcing municipalities to cover the sign costs, Ottawa can hide the true advertising costs of its economic action plan.

Of course, as usual, the Liberal outrage is directed at activities they engage in as well.

"The stimulus agreement says you must install signage on the projects," Hume said. "This is consistent with every other project when there have been funding programs.
"This is not something new for us. In every other infrastructure project, we have installed these signs to give credit where credit is due. I don't think this is unreasonable when the federal and provincial governments are contributing two-thirds of the cost of such projects. You get millions of dollars and the biggest requirement is to put up signs and complete the project within two years."

 Nevertheless, I don't like seeing the signs and this will make me feel even more annoyed each time I drive by one.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 9:36 AM