QotD: Government Spending

This is hardly the first case, after all, in which Parliament has been informed of government expenditures long after they have been made. Budget after budget, up to and including the last, have misrepresented the government's fiscal position by stuffing billions of dollars in current spending into previous fiscal years, circumventing that most hallowed of Parliamentary prerogatives: the power to scrutinize and approve how government spends the money it takes from taxpayers, before it is spent.

But these were at least open in their contempt for Parliament. And, at least in theory, Parliament could put a stop to such flimflammery if it chose. In the current example, by contrast, neither the public or Parliament had any knowledge of the overrun, or the misreporting, until it was too late. It was a deliberate act of deception, a calculated defiance of Parliament, and a fraud upon the public. That the program was also catastrophically mismanaged is, in the circumstances, almost an afterthought.

Andrew Coyne, "Why should we ever trust the Liberals again?", National Post, 2006-05-17