The federal government's near-record surplus of $13.2 billion didn't save over a dozen programs and initiatives from the Conservative chopping block.

Everything from literacy programs to medical marijuana research are being slashed as part of the Conservative government's plans to cut $1 billion in spending over the next two years.

"Most of those cuts are designed to appeal to the Conservative base," reported CTV's Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife.

"They have taken the axe to programs they've long regarded as slush funds for left leaning groups who don't vote Conservative."

For example, the Court Challenges Program which funded equality and language-rights groups to challenge federal laws -- an initiative long disdained by Conservatives -- is getting the axe.

Speaking in Toronto on Tuesday, Liberal leadership candidate Stephane Dion said  the court program helped francophones outside Quebec and anglophones in Quebec defend their Charter language rights.

The Conservatives must be removed because they don't respect such rights, he said.

A department significantly hit was Canadian Heritage. The department's Status of Women Canada, an  agency which promotes gender equality, stands to lose $5 million from its annual $23 million budget.

Some pro-Conservative groups, such as REAL Women Canada, mounted a campaign over the summer to scrap the agency created under the Pierre Trudeau government.

Priority areas

But neither Finance Minister Jim Flaherty nor Treasury Board President John Baird are making apologies, saying the cuts reflect the priorities of "working families."

"I think we want today to look at the way government spends money and say, 'are we getting effective results, accountable spending and value for money?'" he said Tuesday on CTV's Canada AM.

"Does the money that we spend as a government reflect the priorities that Canadian families have for their federal government? Those were the base lines that we looked at."

Baird said "priority areas" such as health care, cancer control strategy, safer streets and greater tax cuts for senior citizens, for instance, will all benefit from the cuts.

As for the Court Challenges Program, Baird said it doesn't make sense for the federal government to "subsidize lawyers to challenge the government's own laws in court."

"We are investing more resources in programs that are important to ordinary Canadians such as child care and safer streets," Flaherty added. "We won't apologize for our capacity to say no to bad ideas."

When asked on Canada AM why an $11 million program meant to deal with B.C.'s pine beetle infestation is being cut, Baird said it was "unused spending" from the previous Liberal government's strategy.

"Prime Minister Stephen Harper has committed to spending literally hundreds of millions of dollars for a new strategy, a far more aggressive and effective strategy that will have greater results for combating the pine beetle problem in British Columbia," he said. 

The Tories are also eliminating the $78-million Goods and Services Tax rebate program, which was intended to help foreign visitors to Canada by allowing them to recoup the GST they pay while in the country. Liberal finance critic John McCallum said the move will hurt tourism.

But Flaherty said the program is another example of an "ineffective" initiative that wasn't doing the job it was designed for.

"There's only a three percent take up on it," he told Canada AM. "By reducing the GST by a full percentage point, it far outweighs that tourism tax."

'Exercise in ideology'

Opposition politicians, meanwhile, are accusing the Conservatives of basing the spending cuts on ideology.

"We've seen an exercise in ideology," said NDP MP Charlie Angus on Monday. "They're sitting on a massive surplus, the debt is at its lowest level in 30 years, and it would continue to decrease regardless of what was done today.''

Added McCallum on Monday: "To do these announcements of huge cuts to the least privileged Canadians at the same day you announce a $13-billion surplus, it tells you a lot about the Conservative frame of mind."

Ottawa's debt will stand at $481.5 billion after the payment is made; eight years ago the debt stood at $562 billion.

"So over the years progress has been made, and every time we pay down debt it means we're saving money on future interest payments. So that's the good news," John Williamson, the CTF's federal director, told CTV Newsnet on Monday.

But the bad news, he added, is that the $13.2 billion surplus is further proof that Canadians are being overtaxed by the federal government.

Flaherty countered on Tuesday that hundreds of millions of dollars won't be paid in interest on the national debt because the government has reduced it substantially.

"That's important and anyone who makes mortgage payments and credit card payments knows what it's like when you accumulate that kind of debt and what it does to your budget," he told Canada AM.

"We brought in very substantial tax cuts this year including the one percent reduction in the GST -- which is a huge tax reduction -- $20 billion in tax reductions over the next couple of years. We also balanced the budget and we've provided for continuing to pay down public debt. That's a priority for Canadians, just like reducing taxes."

Here are some of the programs and initiatives being cut or reduced to help the government save $1 billion over the next two years -- part of a $2-billion savings plan -- and the amount of savings for each:

Tory cutbacks

Some of the programs and initiatives being eliminated or reduced to help Harper's government save $1 billion over the next two years -- and the amount of savings for each:

• $78.8 million: Elimination of program that gave GST rebates to tourists
• $50 million: Elimination of unused funding for Northwest Territories devolution
• $46.8 million: Smaller cabinet announced in February
• $45 million: "Efficiencies" in Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
• $15 million: Elimination of residual funding for softwood-lumber trade litigation
• $13.9 million: Cancellation of National Defence High-Frequency Surface Wave Radar Project
• $11.7 million: Removal of unused funds for mountain pine beetle initiative
• $6.5 million: Elimination of funding for the Centre for Research and Information on Canada
• $6 million: Operational efficiencies at the Canada Firearms Centre
• $5.6 million: Elimination of Court Challenges Program
• $5 million: Administrative reductions to Status of Women Canada
• $4.6 million: Cuts to museum assistance
• $4.6 million: Elimination of the RCMP drug-impaired-driving program's training budget
• $4.25 million: Consolidation of foreign missions
• $4.2 million: Cuts to Law Commission of Canada
• $4 million: End to medical-marijuana science funding