Suppressing the facts

Charlie Angus notes that the programs gratuitously axed by the Cons last year included volunteering initiatives which have been found by an independent evaluation to be an effective use of public money. But due to the Cons' suppression of the audit which reached that conclusion, it's just now that Canadians are able to see just how harmful the Cons' move was:

Heritage Minister Bev Oda is refusing to release a positive audit report on important volunteer programs that were axed last fall under her watch. The Summative Evaluation, obtained by NDP MP Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay), clearly shows that the Community Participation Programs (CPP) including the Canada Volunteerism Initiative (CVI) were necessary, useful, and cost-effective.

The audit, undertaken as a routine procedure for programs of this nature, would normally be made public. However, the positive review stands in stark contrast to Conservative rhetoric from last fall that claimed their funding cuts were targeted at programs that were “wasteful”, “inefficient” and “out of touch with average Canadians.” Therefore the report was only discovered as the result of an access to information request.

Angus, the NDP’s Heritage Critic, says Oda needs to explain the gap between the reality presented in the report and Conservative spin with respect to the CVI. “This report vindicates volunteer organizations from across Canada who were singled out by the Conservatives as wasteful and out of touch. Bev Oda stood by and did nothing to defend a Heritage Department success story. It’s time she came clean with the volunteer sector and told them why she walked away from them when they needed her most,” said Angus.

Angus concludes by demanding that the Cons restore full funding to the programs they cut. And that would certainly help to undo the damage in this case - though it would be expected that the programs would need some time to recover from having their funding wiped out.

That said, the bigger issue is the Cons' propensity for both evaluating programs on criteria which have nothing to do with their effectiveness, and systematically covering up any information which shows how their spin conflicts with reality. And based on the Cons' consistent track record since they took power, the only way to fix that problem is to replace Harper's gang of merry fabricators with a new government.