Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 23, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A7 winnipegfreepress. com CANADA WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2015 A 7 I T was watching Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre on television recently that got me to thinking about Anthony Hopkins. Well, not Hopkins per se, but rather his harrowing performance as serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the epic horror film The Silence of the Lambs . In particular, the scene where Hopkins/ Lecter is trying to lure personal details out of FBI agent Clarice Starling ( Jody Foster) in exchange for information about another serial killer on the loose. " Quid pro quo, Clarice," Hopkins hisses at Foster. " Quid pro quo." Poilievre could certainly use that as a tag line for his stump speech on the arrival of the Universal Child Care Benefit ( UCCB), a new lump- sum payment to 3.8 million Canadian families with children, whether or not they actually need daycare. For families with children under six, it worked out to $ 520 per child; those with older children got $ 420 per head. Given that the payments were retroactive to Jan. 1, some families got cheques for several thousand dollars. On July 20, outfitted in a dashing, bright blue Conservative Party of Canada golf shirt, Poilievre could barely contain his giddy delight at the idea that these cheques would be magically appearing in bank accounts and mailboxes all over the country. " One more sleep until Christmas in July for Moms and Dads!" Poilievre tweeted the night before the money started flowing. Oh, and if it's OK with you, quid pro quo when it's time to vote this fall. The UCCB is the brashest, most thinly veiled attempt to curry favour with voters this country has ever seen. Worse, it's a benefit many Canadians will be forced to pay back. Consider that the Conservatives decided to send out UCCB payments to all Canadian families with children, regardless of income level. Any family that makes too much money will be asked to repay some or all of the benefit. Giving money to voters with full knowledge that many will have to pay it back is a pretty cynical ploy for support in this fall's election. However, the symbolism of the UCCB is even more disturbing. In choosing to return billions of tax dollars to families with children, the Conservative government is signalling its attempt to fundamentally alter the federation. The Tories have argued that they are able to boost the payouts for the UCCB, and provide it to more families, because they will balance the federal budget this year. Whether or not that will actually happen - and increasingly informed parties such as the parliamentary budget officer are saying it won't - the choices the Tories are making about where to spend the spoils of a balanced budget reveal a lot about how they want the federation to function. In conversations with Tory sources, I asked why Prime Minister Stephen Harper had not elected to take the fiscal dividend from a balanced budget and invest it in infrastructure, or health care, or post- secondary education? At a meeting of premiers last week in St. John's, N. L., there was a large appetite for greater federal participation in all these key program areas, and others. Several sources noted that all of the programs identified by the premiers were, in fact, provincial responsibilities. Although Ottawa cost- shares all of them, there is no obligation on the part of the federal government to throw money at things that are under provincial jurisdiction. That's a pretty rash statement. Although those programs are in fact provincial responsibilities, a strong federal government in Canada has always played a pivotal role in ensuring a minimum standard across the country through direct transfers and equalization payments, or in the form of infrastructure grants. And, for the most part, Ottawa has continued to ratchet up those payments. However, the cost of delivering those programs has rapidly outpaced the increases in federal funding. That is why with the Tories threatening to balance the federal budget, the premiers are desperate to see some of the surpluses spent on hard government services. But that's not going to happen. The Conservatives are going to continue returning the budget surplus to us in tiny bits and pieces, passing up opportunities to use the combined resources to make meaningful impacts on programs Canadians value most. The Tories can trumpet Christmas in July all they want, but it seems unlikely that a majority of Canadians would prefer a poorly designed cash windfall in midsummer over a significant bump to funding for infrastructure or health care. But who really knows? The Conservative government is desperate to find a way of squeaking out another majority mandate and a free cash giveaway is, to this point, the best pre- campaign idea the Tories have devised so far. It is direct, tangible and contains an absolutely unambiguous core message: Quid pro quo, voters. Quid pro quo. dan. lett@ freepress. mb. ca A thinly veiled attempt to curry voter favour Canadians unlikely to celebrate Christmas in July DAN LETT SEAN KILPATRICK / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre could barely contain his glee over the payment to parents. A_ 07_ Jul- 23- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A7 7/ 22/ 15 8: 01: 45 PM ;