Budget Officer Says Tory Costing of Crime Bill is 'Total Obfuscation'

Tories say the massive omnibus crime bill will only cost Canadians $78.5 million over five years. Right.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page, the man responsible for finding out just how much legislation will cost Canadians, says the Conservative government has all but lied to the public over how much their Gazillion-Dollar Pot-Growers Act is going to cost. Page said the Tories' brief, two-page summary of the bill's cost, which the party pegged at merely $78.5 million over five years, amounts to a "total obfuscation." The Tories say that $78.5 million is part of a much larger $2.7 billion rollout of tough-on-crime initiatives, but Page says he can't find any of that money set aside in the two previous budgets. As well, Page dinged the Tories for not providing a methodology of their cost and for not saying how much the bill will cost the provinces, who fund much of the corrections system, which analysts figure will take on thousands of new prisoners due to this bill. Page will have his own estimate on how much the massive omnibus crime bill will cost Canadians come mid-November, but based on his reaction thus far, it stands to be markedly higher than $78.5 million.