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Ottawa — In its first fiscal decision, Paul Martin's government put into deep freeze some of Jean Chretien's nearest and dearest legacy projects Tuesday-- a political history museum, a new Parliament building and a federal courthouse to be named after Pierre Trudeau.
The government announced it is suspending all federal projects valued at more than $5-million until a cabinet committee decides whether each project will go ahead or be killed -- but three of the largest, and closest to Mr. Chrétien, will probably die in the cold.
The decision to apply emergency cost-cutting measures most heavily to capital projects was in part motivated by the fact that Mr. Martin's team are keen to see those projects die, government sources said Tuesday.
A series of other projects across Canada will also be frozen and some killed, although the Treasury Board was unable to provide a list Tuesday, after an announcement that took senior civil servants by surprise.
The freeze does not cover projects covered by a federal-provincial agreement, such as most highway construction, or those where contracts have already been issued to private firms.
"Obviously if it's in play, if there's shovels in the ground or there's an agreement that's been reached with a province, that's off the table, we're not going to deal with that stuff. Anything that has not been officially started, let's just hold it static," Treasury Board President Reg Alcock said.
"Maybe we'll cancel it, that's a possibility. Maybe we'll simply bump it four months [into the next fiscal year]."
But it could affect a host of smaller plans across the country, possibly creating some political fallout for the Liberal government.
The Chrétien legacy projects were deemed ripe for the cutting, however. And Mr. Martin's advisers also took pains to note that $700-million in additional funding for Via Rail -- a commitment that angered Mr. Martin -- is also frozen and could be cancelled, though that money is not scheduled to be spent until the next fiscal year.
Mr. Alcock said the government has not decided whether any of the three biggest projects affected this fiscal year -- the political history museum, the Parliament building or the courthouse -- will eventually survive. But Mr. Martin's team has little love for them.
The Chrétien legacy projects include the $100-million museum, planned for an old Ottawa train station now used as a conference centre. Mr. Chrétien proudly announced the project in May as part of a spree of financing of new museums, parks and other projects that were viewed as his effort to leave a permanent stamp after he left office.
But the Ottawa political museum was also bitterly criticized by administrators of existing museums across the country, who complained their institutions are underfunded.
Another project, the $151-million building designed to house all of the now-scattered Ottawa branches of the Federal Court of Canada, was only two weeks ago named after Pierre Trudeau, the late prime minister and Mr. Chrétien's former boss.