On budget busters

Since its announcement in 2007, the Cons' auto feebate program has served as a monument to the Harper government's incompetence and warped sense of priorities. Ignoring both public and internal advice that the program was a woefully inefficient means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the Cons not only pushed ahead with the program but loaded it up with pork for maximum inefficiency.

Then, when it came time to actually pay out the promised rebates, Canadians found out that the Cons hadn't actually bothered to put their announcement into practice. Which means that when the Cons axed the program for years after 2008, it might have been tempting to breathe a sigh of relief that the damage was at least done with.

Unfortunately, though, the Cons can always find some way to make things even worse than they may have appeared. And the CP reports that the bad news is still rolling in, as the program managed to go far over budget for 2007:

Internal estimates from Transport Canada forecasted the federal eco-rebate program would go over budget by at least $37 million – and by as much as $65 million – in its first year alone.

The Conservative government's 2007 budget earmarked a total of $160 million over two years for the program.

The estimates show the department expected to spend between $117 million and $145 million in the first year of the two-year scheme.

It remains to be seen just how much worse matters get. But it speaks volumes about just how ludicrous the Cons' management of the feebate program has been that the best-case scenario may be if their earlier bungling (particularly in failing to pay out the rebates in 2007) pushes consumers to avoid making use of the rebate such as to limit the damage to the 2008 budget.