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Liberal platform hides true costs

ItB´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·™s a bit rich for Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff to be talking about the credibility of election platforms. It has been more than a week since Ignatieff released his election platform. Here are the major uncosted items:

B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·¢ HST funding for Quebec ($2.2 billion).

B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·¢ New Champlain bridge ($1 billion according to Ignatieff).

B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·¢ Arenas for professional sports (cost unknown. The Quebec City arena is estimated at $400 million. How many more arenas is he planning to build or fund?).

B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·¢ Pharmacare (Estimated between $6.6 and $10.3 billion by a 2006 federal-provincial study).

B´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·¢ High speed rail ($18 billion for a Quebec City-Windsor route according to 1995 study. Obviously the cost would be much more in 2011 dollars).

Ignatieff has made at least $28 billion in un-costed spending promises in this campaign, even before the cost of his arena program is factored in. He has no credibility on the numbers or the economy.

I would like to know how much of this the Liberals expect to be paid for by the new re-packaged carbon tax in the Liberal platform (page 46) and why are they not talking about re-introducing of the green shift and cap-and-trade which will largely affect western provinces? DidnB´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·™t we vote against this in 2008?

And arenB´ÎÔª¹ÙÍøÍøÖ·™t health care, education and day care provincial responsibilities? What are the provinces saying to all this, since they will be significantly affected?

Jan Webb

Metchosin

 



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