I think the getting more bang for the taxpayers' buck movement will really pick up speed in this country once the housing market in Canada starts its "United States style meltdown", and more economic pain is felt in this country. A lot of people understand what is going on in our economy as evidenced by the huge response of the anti-hst movement, but unfortunately a equal number of people are still partying like it's 1999 and buying homes, toys, and gadgets using the cheap money which is available, as evidenced by the record high levels of household debt in this country. The following is from a May 11, 2010 news article:

" Neither recession, global uncertainty nor growing joblessness appears to have stayed Canadians’ appetite for spending money they don’t have.

A new report by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada shows that household debt in the country kept rising through the recession and peaked in December at $1.41 trillion.

That’s $41,740 on average per Canadian, or debt to income ratio of 144 per cent that is the worst among 20 advanced countries in the OECD.

“This report is another indication of Canadians’ readiness to consume today and pay later,” says association president Anthony Ariganello."

http://news.therecord.com/article/710131

I think the following article does a good job of explaining what the current state of the Canadian housing market (and by extension the Canadian economy) is:

The title of the article is "One broken refrigerator away from default.

http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/comment/article/568352--one-broken-refrigerator-away-from-default

Interesting articles. Since the Olympics, our local BC Government borrowed $1.9 Billion at 2.85% over 5 years. (A little trip to New York) It is cheap money, so who is really concerned about it? We have a debt based economy. Any way you look at it, if I reduce my debt and my borrowing, the different levels of government just increase theirs by borrowing on my behalf and pass the cost back to me.

It appears that most people don't really understand what they are doing when they buy bonds or (invest in Treasury Bills)? They are just lending money to someone who needs it.

With skyrocketing government debt levels in this country, eventually the "Romania solution" is going to have to come here.

"Romania will cut over 53,000 public jobs and slash pay in the remaining positions by 25 percent as part of a package of austerity measures aimed at reining in a ballooning deficit, officials said on Thursday."

The following is the link to the article which is entitled "Romania to cut 53,000 government jobs"

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9GMCC382.htm