Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Despite Tory promises, spending cuts haven’t saved any money at all: Parliamentary budget officer report

OTTAWA — A new report from the Parliamentary Budget Office finds that the Conservative government’s spending restraint program is focusing on front line services, while back office spending continues to rise.

That’s exactly the opposite of promises made by Treasury Board President Tony Clement, who said last year that the majority of the spending cuts would target administrative and support costs and wouldn’t affect service to the public.

Overall, the independent budget office found that Ottawa’s spending was down 0.6 per cent through the first six months of the current fiscal year, which ends March 31.

Direct program spending fell four per cent.

But spending on internal services — such as communications, information technology, human resources and financial management — actually rose eight per cent.

And the PBO report says capital expenditures, in large part driven by Defence spending, also climbed in the first half of 2012-13, up almost seven per cent.

Original Article
Source: national post
Author: Canadian Press

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