An Economic Action plan sign is pictured in Mississippi Mills, Ont., on August 23, 2010.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Canada's Economic Action Plan is dead.
The slogan used by the Conservative government to promote its budget measures and infrastructure spending had long been heavily promoted online.
However, the links and images are now being removed across federal websites.
"The promotional [web links] for the Economic Action Plan have been retired as the EAP is no longer being actively promoted. In addition, all government of Canada web content is under review to ensure alignment with government priorities," said Raymond Rivet, a spokesman with the Privy Council Office.
Mr. Rivet said the information and the website actionplan.gc.ca will remain archived online but will no longer be promoted on government websites.
For the first three years under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the government's budgets were called budgets. But starting in 2009, the word "budget" was sidelined and sometimes dropped entirely from the cover of the annual documents. Instead, they were called Economic Action Plans, followed by that year's date.
The 2009 budget approved billions in deficit-financed stimulus spending on infrastructure projects across the country as a response to the global financial crisis. The Conservative government required all construction sites to feature blue-and-green billboards promoting the Economic Action Plan.
The Conservatives also spent millions on television ads promoting the concept. Records show that between April 1 and June 30, 2015, they approved $11-million specifically on Economic Action Plan ads. The government approved a total of $56.2-million in advertising during that three-month period, including other campaigns on tax measures and "Better Jobs" that were similar to the Economic Action Plan ads.
The new, Liberal government was elected on a promise to launch major new infrastructure spending. However, it also promised to scale back spending on government advertising.
Bill Curry