OTTAWA — The Harper government is plastering signs promoting its economic action plan on federal buildings that are receiving what Liberals say is routine maintenance.

Liberal MP Wayne Easter says a huge "propaganda" sign has been posted outside an RCMP building in Charlottetown, where "internal door hardware" -- otherwise known as door knobs -- are being installed.

"That seems to me like it should be regular maintenance," Easter told a news conference Monday.

"Do you think this is stimulus, putting a door knob in an RCMP building in this country? (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper calls this stimulus?" he said, holding up a door knob for emphasis.

"For every (time) he screws a light bulb in a building, he'll probably have a sign out in front of it and it's your money."

Liberals contend the door knobs are further proof that the Conservatives are using taxpayer-funded stimulus programs to promote their partisan interests.

They've filed complaints with Parliament's ethics commissioner against 55 Tory MPs who have presented personalized cheques or used the Conservative party logo while announcing government funding.

And they've accused the Harper government of ensuring that infrastructure funding disproportionately benefits Conservative ridings.

They pounced Monday on a report that the government spent $108,000 to stage a carefully scripted town-hall style meeting to unveil its second progress report on the economic action plan. The June event in Cambridge, Ont., replaced a simple tabling of the report in Parliament at little or no cost

"The partisan abuse which is going on around Canada is now completely out of control in that it represents the single largest propaganda effort in Canadian political history,"said Liberal MP David McGuinty.

Easter pointed out that the economic action plan website was initially salted with photos of the prime minister and included a link to a video of Harper playing the piano and crooning a Beatles tune at a recent National Arts Centre gala. After media reports, many of the Harper photos were removed and the link to the video disappeared over the weekend.

"So I believe clearly that the prime minister knows he was over the line," said Easter. "It's an admission of guilt of abusing taxpayers' money."

The generic signs posted on projects trumpet the economic action plan but don't specify the work being done, which Liberals said violates Treasury Board rules. McGuinty suggested the ploy is aimed more at boosting the governing party's popularity than informing taxpayers how their money is being spent.

Easter said federal officials have told him that more than $800,000 has been allocated for repair and restoration of federal buildings and facilities in Prince Edward Island -- each of which features large signs advertising the action plan.

The projects include installation of a boiler room door in one building, an air-exchange system in another and elevator upgrades in a third.

They also include moving an iron fence at one site and modifying walkways, ramps and washroom doors to make another building more accessible.

Easter said the latter improvements are particularly hard to understand because they're in a building that opened only a few years ago and should have been accessible in the first place.