Stephen Harper

The Harper government is creating a $3-billion fund to fast-track economic stimulus cash and begin pumping it out within weeks - a move rivals call a recipe for a boondoggle.

The fund would let money start filtering down April 1, nearly three months sooner than the traditional period in which Parliament endorses supplementary budget spending.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned opponents they risk triggering an election should they vote against the fund.

But the threat appeared unnecessary. While the Liberals expressed concern that they were being asked to sign a blank cheque, they offered no indication they would block the government's stimulus measures.

Still, the Bloc Quebecois called it a slush fund and the NDP warned the conditions are in place for another sponsorship scandal.

Even the Conservatives admitted the spending stampede could result in waste.

Harper agreed there are some long-term risks associated with the stimulus package, but he cited a famous economist to argue that the short-term danger is greater.

"Of course there's all kinds of risks of inefficient, expanded government policies that will continue into the future," Harper told a news conference in British Columbia.

"I'm not suggesting there aren't long-term risks.

"But I was taught early in economics classes, the famous economist John Maynard Keynes said that, 'At times like this, we remember that in the long run, we're all dead.'

The money is not allocated to any specific program. It is a general fund that departments can tap into to speed up delivery of projects promised in the recent federal budget.

The government has already promised to speed up infrastructure projects by drastically reducing regulatory procedures.

The most controversial move would see Ottawa cancel environmental-impact assessments in cases where provincial or municipal governments have already conducted one.

To prevent mistakes, the government says a handful of accountability measures adopted in recent years will help.

Ottawa notes that departments now have independent audit committees and chief financial officers, and that there will be quarterly economic status reports in Parliament.

The stimulus fund was promised in last month's federal budget, but its price tag and details were only made public in the 2009-10 main estimates tabled Thursday.

All the projects it supports will still need to be individually approved by the Treasury Board.

But the opposition remains skeptical of the latest stimulus move.

One New Democrat drew parallels with the 1990s, when there was also a national crisis - over national unity - and the government of the day responded by shovelling money out the door to a variety of projects that promoted Canada.

A number of middlemen took advantage of lax oversight, enriching themselves in an infamous scam that led to the demise of the Liberals.

"The Conservatives are using the exact same argument that the Liberals used in the sponsorship scandal," said New Democrat MP Tom Mulcair.

"(They say), 'These are extraordinary times, the normal rules shouldn't apply, we're serving a higher purpose.'

"In the case of the sponsorship scandal, they said they were serving the purpose of national unity. And there was a problem of national unity, but they used it as an excuse to pork barrel."

The government called Mulcair's position hypocritical. The NDP spent months demanding fast-tracked spending for infrastructure projects, the Tories noted.