The Gargoyle: Even with "army" of communications staff, Conservatives defend tens of millions of dollars spent on media monitoring

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government defended Thursday in the House of Commons the tens of millions of dollars it’s spending on media monitoring when there are more than 3,300 communications staff working in government.

The Citizen reported this week that the Conservative government has spent more than $20 million on media monitoring since late 2012 — including keeping tabs on the Tories’ political opponents — even when it has thousands of communication staff costing taxpayers an estimated $263 million this fiscal year.

Opposition parties argue the government is abusing taxpayer dollars for partisan political gain.

Independent MP Brent Rathgeber (who formerly sat in the Conservative caucus) grilled the government Thursday over why it’s spending millions of dollars on the media monitoring.

“The government has spent more than $20 million on media monitoring contracts since December 2012, notwithstanding maintaining an army of 3,300 communications staff across all government lines. Given that this in-house communication staff costs nearly $263 million every year, why does the government need to outsource another $20 million in media monitoring services?” Rathgeber said in question period in the Commons.

“Has the government never heard of Google Alerts? What do all of these people do?”

Federal Treasury Board president Tony Clement defended the significant spending on media monitoring, even with a large communications staff, saying it’s necessary for government to do its job.

“It is important for any government, and certainly this government takes it seriously, to understand what Canadians are telling the media, and to understand the various people in the parliamentary press gallery, but also all the other sources of media these days, aside from the parliamentary press gallery,” Clement said in the Commons.

“This is part of how we inform ourselves and make informed decisions and we will continue to do so.”

The federal Liberals are accusing the government of using the media-monitoring spending for quasi-partisan political purposes to keep an eye on opponents and potential scandals that could hurt the Conservative party going into an election year.

The more than 1,100 pages of search terms (half English, half French) demonstrated the government has been going to great lengths to keep an eye on what reporters, opposition party critics, left-leaning groups and its own spokespersons are saying.

The search terms for one department include the Conservative Party of Canada and former Tory MP Dean Del Mastro, which opposition parties suggest demonstrates the government is using tax dollars for partisan gain.

Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author:    BY JASON FEKETE