Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Woodward & Bernstein & Alghabra

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, October 15, 2009 4:27pm - 47 Comments

Former Liberal MPs are the new investigative reporters. Apparently.

Ontario was allocated about $1.1 billion in Infrastructure Stimulus Fund money, translating to about $90 for each Ontarian (according to the 2006 census). Mississauga was assigned $46 million (to be matched by the province of Ontario and the city of Mississauga). According to the 2006 census, it means that Mississauga only received $69 per person. The city of Mississauga received 23% less than the provincial average.

It gets worse. Looking at some cities that are represented by Conservative MPs, the numbers are even more disturbing. For example, Barrie received $129 per person, Niagara Falls received $200 per person, Cambridge received $170 per person, and Oakville received $279 per person.

Tags: Barrie, Cambridge, economy, government spending, infrastructure, Mississauga, Niagara Falls, Oakville, Omar Alghabra, stimulus

More by Aaron Wherry

John W.

This money is being distributed in order to create employment for people who have lost their jobs in the recession.
It is not being distributed according to need, but according to political party affiliation.
Nice work defending that.
tobyornottoby

Dividing it by a dollar per person amount is the basest form of the very politicking the Liberals are supposedly criticizing, as if "what's in it for me?" is the best we are capable of as a society.

Mabye it's being unfairly distributed, but surely we're not all going to get out our abacuses and calculate how much should be spent on our block are we?

I'm able, as a voter and a human, to understand that some other project in some other province, some other people might need infrastructure spending more than I do. It's the collection of our 90 bucks each into a strategic project, perhaps all the way across town, that has the potential to generate social and economic benefit for all of us, not this clamouring for goodies.

Obviously Alghabra has the same value system as the logoist Conservatives. They agree that it's about divvying up the loot. Disgusting.

http://intensedebate.com/people/LynnTO LynnTO

I tend to believe that infrastructure spending should be allotted based on need. And while it's possible that the need is concentrated more in what also happen to be Tory ridings than Liberal or NDP ridings, I have a hard time believing it really is a legitimate 80-20 split.

This, combined with the party putting its logo on government cheques – I don't care who did it first, it's still wrong – means something smells.
http://intensedebate.com/people/ChrisInKW ChrisInKW

In fairness, most want fairness. If some other region needs the cashola more, the distribution model should be plain to see. It's not. Neither is the data. Cue the speculation.

http://intensedebate.com/people/VinceClortho VinceClortho

And there is no indication that current government has been improperly distributing the stimulus money. You need to show that there were projects that were denied to Liberal ridings. To date I havent seen anythign like that. As well, how do you imporperly distribute money when you aren't approving the suppliers or initiating the projects. This is missing from the story as well.

So we are left with very political "credit taking" exercise. None of which justifies putting party logos on cheques, this is wrong, small cheap potatoes, but still wrong. As for why Chretien, well there hasnt been a Liberal leader of consequence since him. So its the best comparison. I also point to Spectors column a couple of days who points to MacCauley and LeBlanc as engaging improper pressure on ACOA to approve Liberal friendly projects. Both of these men are currently MP's. It's a bit rich…..so for them to have any credibility in their outrage some constructive suggestions would be in order.

If it is all "just politics" then claiming credit is fine and so is faux outrage. As for why Chretien, he is the last Liberal leader of any significance.
http://intensedebate.com/people/VinceClortho VinceClortho

"riding by province are not aligned by the same boundaries as the Federal ones"

They are in Ontario
Style

The investigative journalism here consists of reading the report prepared by Gerald Kennedy. Aaron, your standards for journalism are pretty low if this is getting you excited. There are commenters on this board who meet this standard.

The actual content of Kennedy's report seems a bit less than devastating, if you actually read through it. In Ontario, the most successful riding, judged by ISF funding announced is represented by the New Democrats. Of the top five, only two have Conservative MPs.