A spokesperson for Build Canada and Canada Spends says the effort to influence government policy and raise awareness of public spending is not trying to emulate billionaire Elon Musk’s controversial DOGE initiative in the United States.
Daniel Debow spoke to The Tyee following the publication of an earlier story in February that pointed out that several of the supporters of Build Canada had praised Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and called for the adoption of a similar initiative in Canada.
The story also noted that the Canada Spends website shared similar formatting and content as the DOGE.gov site, notably the use of government spending facts in boxes that link to posts on X, the social media platform Musk owns.
The two lobby groups (Build Canada and Canada Spends) are quite different from each other and completely different from DOGE (the former United States Digital Service). It’s like comparing Habitat for Humanity to the CMHC or something. If I met someone who thought that these things were “all the same”, I’d assume they’re pretty basic and one of those Canadians who watches too much US news. Like here is Build Canada advocating for Building rental housing stock and High Speed Rail We are luckily to live in a different country with our own lobby groups, government structures and problems. We can actually make decisions about what we think of them based on better information than if we think they’re like some weird government department that a billionaire in a neighbouring country hijacked.