As A Taxpayer, This Stinks

From the Accountable Government file, we have the Federal Government claiming national security concerns to avoid divulging how much Stevie's Excellent Adventure in Afghanistan is costing us:

The Defence Department cited a national security exemption when it censored a request under Access to Information by the federal NDP for the military costs of Canada’s military participation in the NATO-led, United Nations-sanctioned military mission to Afghanistan.

Hmmm...why does the government getting secretive about defense spending worry me? Well, let's start with the generally dishonest approach the HarperCon$ have had towards disclosing anything, and then compound it with an approach to budgets and fiscal planning that a ten year old can poke holes in. The real question is what are they hiding?

While I'm sure that the governing party will gleefully hide behind the claim that this was done "by the bureaucracy", the governing party sets the tone for policy and action within the government.

In a recent speech, Defence Minister Peter MacKay touted the price tag of the government’s program to buy new equipment for the military, telling an audience of defence contractors and lobbyists that the government would spend $60 billion on new capital acquisitions by 2028.

It's not hard to spend $60bn on military equipment. The question was, is and should be, whether that $60bn is being spent appropriately. The fact that they are now directing the DND to be increasingly secretive should give us all pause - governments that are being secretive are like children that are too quiet - they are all too often up to something you don't want them to do.