OTTAWA - It appears the Harper government will finally start providing specific details on its infrastructure stimulus spending this week.

Kevin Page, Parliament's independent budget officer, told a House of Commons committee Tuesday that says he's been informed his office will start getting province-by-province details soon, possibly by week's end.

A Conservative MP on the estimates committee subsequently confirmed project specifics could start rolling out as early as Wednesday.

The parliamentary budget office has repeatedly expressed frustration over the absence of specifics as it attempts to track billions of dollars in government stimulus spending and its impact on the economy.

As far back as June, the Conservatives were claiming stimulus funds were "80 per cent already being implemented" -- without providing specifics.

Page's office has drawn unflattering comparisons between the level of disclosure on stimulus spending in the United States and that provided by the Tory government.

"We are hopeful that in the fourth quarter we'll start to see the gap kind of close between what American legislators see and what you see," he told MPs on the committee Tuesday.

Page said he first asked for infrastructure details at the beginning of September, and expected a response within two weeks.

Under questioning from MPs, Page acknowledged that more than 3,000 announced infrastructure projects represent a large volume of data, but he expressed little sympathy for the lack of a proper paper trail.

"If the government is in a position to say it that it has commitments, it should also be able to give us the details," he said at one point.

"I'm not sure I understand what are the real reasons I'm not being given the information," he said at another.

"Maybe this is a question to ask the minister of transport and infrastructure (John Baird)."

The Conservatives have been criticized for spending tens of millions of dollars touting their economic action plan in what non-partisan critics have called an exercise in partisan propaganda. Yet details about exactly where and how the money is being spent have not been readily available to the public.

Page resisted a flurry of partisan questions from opposition and government MPs alike at the estimates committee.

New Democrat MP Pat Martin asserted that "the best way to hide hanky panky is to make financial reports incomprehensible. That's what we're afraid is happening here."

When Ed Holder, a Conservative MP on the committee, later attempted to get Page to shoot down Martin's assertion, the budget officer wouldn't bite.

Page responded that he "can't say one way or the other" whether "hanky panky" is taking place because he hasn't been provided enough information by government .

"I don't start with the assumption there's bad practices at play," he added.

Conservative MP Patrick Brown then attempted to dispute opposition claims -- supported by Page -- that infrastructure spending to date has been less than transparent.

"It's never been more obvious that spending is going on and what that spending is," said the MP for Barrie, Ont.

"Whether it's the (government) website that illustrates it, whether it's the fact that every community in Canada where you go you see giant signs."

Both the www.actionplan.gc.ca website and Tory-blue billboard signs on questionable projects have been lampooned by opposition critics as taxpayer-funded party propaganda.