NDP REALITY CHECK: Conservatives spending ten times more on war than aid?

As the Canadian Press reports today, the Conservatives have spent $100 million on aid to the people of Iraq since last year.

But in six months alone, the government itself has estimated that it spent $122 million on the military mission, bombing runs by CF-18s and special operations in Iraq.

How high could that go? Let’s have a look at a recent report by the Parliamentary Budget Officer on the cost of missions in Iraq:

If the mission were lengthened for another six months, extending the analysis forward would result in an estimated incremental cost of Operation IMPACT for the 12 months of between a high of $351.27 million and a low of $242.71 million… It is worth noting that the full costs for Canada’s most recent overseas mission in Libya (i.e. Operation Mobile) were almost six times the reported incremental costs for the mission.

Could we end up with a billion dollar mission with only 1/10th as much spent on assistance? The Conservatives need to tell Canadians.