OTTAWA–The federal government has revealed a plan for a $3 billion emergency fund, with the money to be doled out at its discretion to tackle the recession.

The surprise plan, which was not among the stimulus measures contained in last month's budget, was contained in the spending estimates for the coming year released yesterday by the government.

In the government's estimates, federal program spending is pegged at $236.1 billion for the fiscal year that begins April 1.

That figure is a 6 per cent increase from last year, but it doesn't factor in all the tax credits and infrastructure spending of last month's stimulus budget, which will push the country into deficit for the first time in a decade.

Treasury Board President Vic Toews said the emergency fund is crucial to ensure money flows quickly into the economy.

He promised that the money would be accounted for in regular reports to Parliament, but some MPs accused the Tories of setting up a slush fund that would be hard to track and easy to misuse.

"What's worrying here is that the Conservatives are doing exactly what the Liberals did in the sponsorship scandal," said New Democrat Thomas Mulcair, referring to the $250 million program to promote Canada in Quebec after the province's 1995 sovereignty referendum.

Mulcair said history is bound to repeat itself without strict parliamentary oversight.

Liberal finance critic John McCallum said the Tories must give opposition parties assurances that there are rules governing how the fund will be tapped before the Commons is asked to approve the money in a vote in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, record low participation in last fall's federal election will save Ottawa almost $800,000 in the next fiscal year.

Only 59 per cent of eligible Canadians cast their ballots in the October election, down from 65 per cent in 2006, and the fewer votes translate into smaller public subsidies that will be paid out to political parties this year. Parties earn $1.95 per vote they receive.

The figure may leave advocates of a robust democracy feeling glum, but it could please Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was almost thrown out of office late last year by opposition parties when he tried to scrap the subsidies as a cost-saving measure last November.

About $29 million is spent in total on the subsidies.

The annual spending estimates also shed more light on areas of the government's agenda that were hinted at, but not spelled out, in the January budget.

The Conservatives have allotted almost $36 million to Environment Canada to improve air quality and tackle climate change, but they also will give an additional $52.6 million to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to deal with what is expected to be a flood of applications to start up new nuclear plants, dig new mines and stock hospitals with medical isotopes.

Ontario plans to build two new plants, and New Brunswick, Alberta and Saskatchewan are also eager to tap into nuclear power to reduce their reliance on carbon-based energy sources with higher emissions, said Jasmine MacDonnell, a spokesperson for Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt.

The new money for the commission represents a funding increase of 58.3 per cent.

It has raised concerns among some who have question the independence of the regulator ever since its former president, Linda Keen, was fired early last year over the handling of the shutdown of the reactor at Chalk River that produces medical isotopes.

"How can we rely on the independence of the agency when the government has made it clear it will interfere in what they're doing?" asked Liberal natural resources critic Geoff Regan.