The Department of Finance yesterday declined to spell out $14.2 billion in unidentified spending outlined in its Fall Economic Statement..“Fourteen-billion, two-million dollars, that’s a big chunk of change,” said Conservative MP Marty Morantz (Charleswood-St. James, Man.)..“In the Fall Economic Statement there was $14.2 billion in spending that was categorized as ‘unannounced spending,’” Morantz told the House of Commons finance committee. “There were no specific details about what it was for. It’s an awfully large sum of money.”.“Sometimes I think we get immune to these numbers when we hear about $500 billion in deficits and $1.2 trillion in debt, but $14.2 billion — that’s a big chunk of change.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland under committee questioning would not disclose the purpose of the money..“It makes sense to look around corners and to look ahead and to make some provision for spending that we see Canada may be undertaking going forward,” said Freeland. “It’s important to be transparent with Canadians about that.".Morantz asked, “in the spirit of transparency would you table what it’s for? Just yes or no…”.Freeland responded, "... our government presents, and our finance presents…”.“I’ll take that as a no," Morantz said..Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux in a November 15 report identified the figure in cabinet’s November 3 budget update..“This year’s Fall Economic Statement identified $14.2 billion in new measures without providing specific details on this spending,” wrote Giroux. “This spending represents 17% of all new measures in the Fall Economic Statement.”.“This lack of transparency presents challenges for parliamentarians and the public in scrutinizing the government’s spending plans,” Giroux yesterday told the Commons finance committee. “The $14.2 billion I mentioned is over six financial years including the current year,” he added..“We presume this is for measures the government imagines it is going to announce over the next few months but that they have not yet announced,” said Giroux. Questions to the finance department went unanswered, he added..“We don’t have any details,” said Giroux. “When we put questions to the Department of Finance officials, we didn’t actually get very useful information back.”.“The government knows quite well the measures that are going to be funded, but is not disclosing them,” said Giroux. “That is the reason we flagged this. These amounts seem quite precise.”.Bloc Québécois MP Gabriele Ste-Marie (Joliette, Que.) said parliamentarians and taxpayers are owed answers..“It’s not acceptable that we are not being given more details on this,” said Ste-Marie.
