Liberals Condemn Conservative Cuts Targeting Environment and Safety

April 29, 2013

OTTAWA– Today Liberal Treasury Board critic John McCallum presented an analysis of the government’s Reports on Plans and Priorities 2013-14 highlighting some of the largest cuts to environment and safety programs for Canadians.

“Despite the Conservatives’ promise not to cut services, their own annual reports clearly show that the opposite is happening,” said Mr. McCallum. “No less than 30 program activities have been cut by 25% or more, which can hardly be the result of trimming backroom costs. Furthermore, in some cases, including at Transport Canada, internal service costs have actually gone up, while important programs relating to the environment and safety have been cut.”

The reports show that many departments will drastically slash spending on their environmental program activities in order to meet the cut quotas in Budget 2012 (see Table 1). Programs promoting public safety have also been subjected to major cuts (see Table 2).

“Every Canadian knows that during the election Stephen Harper and the Conservatives promised not to touch pensions, yet the first thing they did when they got into office was raise the age of eligibility for Old Age Security,” said Mr. McCallum. “It appears that Mr. Harper’s promise to focus his government’s cuts on backroom services was just as fraudulent as all of his other election promises.”
 

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Backgrounder:

Table 1 – Ten examples of environment related cuts to various departments can be viewed here.

Table 2 – Eight examples of cuts to services and safety can be viewed here.