Wasteful vote grab or public service?
Those are the conflicting labels being applied to the NDP government’s mandatory signage at construction projects funded partially or entirely by the province.
The colourful, highly visible signs bear the slogan “Steady Growth Good Jobs” under the heading “Investing In Municipal Roads.” They also feature the Bison logo of the Manitoba government.
In Flin Flon, one of
the signs was placed on Green Street, where landscaping has been underway to restore property torn up during a piping-replacement project in 2012 and 2013.
Director of Works and Operations Rick Bacon said the city received $100,000 in provincial support for the landscaping and that erecting the sign was part of the deal.
Reimburse
Official Opposition Leader Brian Pallister is calling on the province
to reimburse taxpayers
for what his party is calling “NDP promotional signs.”
“These signs are nothing more than partisan signs that serve no public purpose,” Pallister said in a news release. “The NDP has doubled its advertising budget, doubled its communication staff, but underspent on roads and bridges. Taxpayer dollars should be spent on fixing roads and bridges, not on fixing the NDP.”
But NDP House Leader Andrew Swan was quick to defend the signs.
“We know that putting up signs and letting people know where their money is being invested is a good thing to do,” he said, as quoted by the Winnipeg Free Press.
Swan accused Pallister’s Tories of harbouring a plan to cut infrastructure spending, while Pallister said the signs’ message is misleading given Manitoba’s actual economic performance, the Free Press reported.
The signs do not feature the NDP logo or colours. A government spokesperson did not have an immediate tally of how much the signs are costing taxpayers, the Free Press reported.
At the national level, the Conservatives have also been criticized
for requiring government signage at project sites
that benefit from federal dollars.
Those signs tout “Canada’s Economic Action Plan” and feature messages such as “Investing In Canada’s Post-Secondary Institutions.”
The federal signs also direct people to the government’s Economic Action Plan website, which some have called partisan.
