CTF releases first version of Spend - O- Meter for Election 2003

Spend-O-Meter

WINNIPEG: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released the first version of the Spend - O - Meter for Election 2003. The Spend - O - Meter chronicles promises made in the platforms of the NDP, the Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals. All of the information contained in the Spend - O - Meter was obtained from each party's platform.

"During an election campaign it is important to remember that as the political parties begin to make promises and jockey for votes, there is a price tag that comes along with each of those commitments," stated Provincial Director Adrienne Batra. "Many promises have been made without costing and it is important that voters have all of this information so they are able to cast an informed ballot on June 3."

The Progressive Conservative Party came out with an aggressive nursing retention strategy, however it is difficult to ascertain exactly how much the already ballooning Health budget will be increased to pay for the promises they have made. The Liberals have also come out swinging with promises for stop smoking aids and restoring funding to the Farm Safety Net, but again, not all of their commitments have a spending envelope attached. Only the NDP have been transparent about how much of our tax dollars they are willing to spend to win the election - and it is a lot!

If elected, the three major political parties have committed to spend the following in 2003-04:

• New Democratic Party: $126 million
• Progressive Conservatives: $ 3 million
• Liberals: $88 million

"The tax cut pledge made by all parties have not been included in the Spend-O-Meter as tax cuts create growth and therefore add revenue to the economy, spending on the other hand stays with us, once added it is there forever. Next week we will highlight the tax cut plans of each party to give taxpayers an overall picture of each party's fiscal plan," added Batra. "We will continue to update the Spend - O - Meter once a week as this election campaign enters its second full week.