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

At the lonely end of the rink (III)

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, October 22, 2009 1:55am - 82 Comments

The Stars gets Gerard Kennedy’s numbers on hockey rink stimulus in Toronto ridings.

Toronto 23 ridings — all but two held by Liberal MPs — got about 38 per cent less than the average Conservative riding in Ontario, prompting accusations that the government was again playing favourites as it doled out its massive stimulus fund.

The Toronto ridings got an average of $1.3 million, compared with an average of $2.1 million that was approved for Conservative ridings in Ontario — a difference of $777,787, according to Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy (Parkdale—High Park).

Kennedy’s office provides various figures and tables here.

Tags: economy, Gerard Kennedy, government spending, infrastructure, recession, recreation, stimulus, Toronto

More by Aaron Wherry

http://intensedebate.com/people/Savant Savant

Toronto did submit proposals – MONTHS LATE – and after large chunks of stimulus had been delivered already. First it was that silly streetcar dream, which would mean Toronto would have gotten ZERO stimulus for local projects if the government approved. Blame Miller for this, he's the one that had no interest in seeing these local projects funded.
kcm

And there's no demand at all – is there?
http://intensedebate.com/people/john_g2708 john_g2708

Well looky here…Smitherman shoots Gerard Kennedy's whole argument in the head.
Style

Not for funding. His riding isn't in the top 20 for funding announced.
Style

Why do you assume there are numbers available that haven't been released? Until Ignatieff demanded it, the federal government had never issued quarterly reports on programs before.
Style

Why do the federal Liberals keep getting into conflict with the Ontario Liberals? Ontario just announced an unexpectedly high, record deficit today – while Ignatieff has been wandering around saying "you can't count on a government that can't count" and otherwise bemoaning record deficits…

Anyway, as Inkless pointed out earlier today, Smitherman didn't talk about the criteria for the RInC program when it was announced so he must be excluded from the conversation now.
Style

Thanks for the catch. Sorry I can't edit the original comment.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

That's an interesting point, scf.

Let us say that Parliament approves a massive stimulus fund of 4 billion dollars, and let's say that the government decides to tie that to provincial and municipal funding also.

Let's say that only two municipalities ask for any of the funding, and let's say that one (of two) provincial governments refuses the project.

Would we then think it is okay to spend the entire 4 billion on whichever municipality got its province to step up to the plate?

Or in other words, if Toronto didn't ask for Toronto's share, why isn't it safe and sound in the treasury–why is it being allocated elsewhere?
http://intensedebate.com/people/john_g2708 john_g2708

And there's more! From the Ottawa Citizen:

The government has not released a list of projects that were rejected, and it is possible that Opposition ridings received funding for fewer projects because their MPs were less likely to encourage groups in their communities to apply for the Conservative government program.

Projects in Clement's riding of Parry Sound – Muskoka received a total of $2.7 million in federal funding for RinC projects, while Liberal infrastructure critic Gerard Kennedy’s downtown Toronto riding took in $523,467.

Clement explained that his riding includes 16 different communities that could apply for RinC projects, while Kennedy’s covers only one – the City of Toronto.

Of the 130 applications for RinC received from Toronto, 118 were awarded funding, Clement said.

Wherry, will there be a "At the lonely end of the rink (IV)" post which corrects some of the misconceptions you've been linking to and helping to spread?
Style

Made a weird mistake about Kenora and Kitchener. If you take $5M out of Kenora to bring it down to the provincial average, and add that funding to opposition ridings, the gap narrows to $1.97M Conservative average versus $1.64 opposition (20% difference). Bringing Kitchener down to the average, makes the gap $1.90M to $1.71M (10% difference). Two ridings nearly eliminate the apparent difference. Finding two Liberal ridings funded well below average would probably explain the rest. The story turns on four ridings.
http://intensedebate.com/people/doug_rogers doug_rogers

If they were Sith Lords, you would know?
Michael

john g, good call, the good stuff continues to elude rinkless. Good thing we have Kennedy charging to unmask the Federal Tory – Ontario Liberal conspiracy to screw Toronto:

"The knowledge infrastructure program, which is for post-secondary education, you’ll see that Toronto actually comes out with a higher degree of investment than its proportion of population…I’m pretty confident that there’s going to be a very equitable regional distribution once we’ve completed the allocation of all those dollars.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper also dismissed Kennedy's allegations. He said that it was the Liberal Ontario government that chose which projects would receive funding.
knick

"it is possible that Opposition ridings received funding for fewer projects because their MPs were less likely to encourage groups in their communities to apply for the Conservative government program"

That statement just doesn't make much sense at all. Why on earth would opposition MPs want to alienate their constituents by not encouraging them to get a share of the stimulus that they will be paying for for years to come?
kcm

Clement – say no more..please.
kcm

If Harper said it we know it's true…right?
http://intensedebate.com/people/TJCook TJCook

Wikipedia on Sith Lords: "Characterized by their single-minded pursuit of power and disdain for sentient life…"

My god, they ARE Sith Lords!

Look, if the Conservatives were Sith Lords, he would argue that, pragmatically, all politicians are Dark Lords of some sort, so what's the big deal if we're currently led by the master of the Dark Side?

Isn't it funny how conservatives are all Preston Manning devotees until their guy is in power. Then it's all "this is just the way it is, stop complaining!"

Honestly, it wouldn't bother me if 1) they weren't so bloody sanctimonious during the Preston Manning cycle, and 2) their guy didn't do it to a new, unprecedented and truly gross degree.
http://intensedebate.com/people/john_g2708 john_g2708

That line was not a quote from Clement, it was from whoever wrote the story.
http://intensedebate.com/people/TJCook TJCook

Uh, isn't the alternate solution simply to dole out stimulus dollars on the basis of efficacy, not political expediency?

In other words, the alternate solution is *what is supposed to be happening*
http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

You're wrong, Baird was correct, and it is easy to verify. Toronto tried to strong-arm the feds into funding streetcars, which did not fit the stimulus criteria. To pressure the feds, they submitted no other proposals. The rest of the country had no trouble cooperating, it's just Toronto city council that thinks they are the center of the universe. As Savant indicates, the only adequate proposals came months late. Blow smoke all you like, I prefer to deal with facts.
http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

You'd think she wouldn't advertise her own incompetence.
http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

Wherry does not work that way. He takes one side and never backs down.
http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

Because it's stimulus! The program is the "stimulus" program. I think the whole idea of stimulus is bunk, but if the idea is stimulus, then sticking the money in the treasury is worthless.

I think the idea of stimulus is garbage, it's pork, and it's a waste. The concept is complete bunk. It's sacrificing future generations and peoples' savings for people working today. But the Cons were forced into it. The coalition was formed with the raison d'etre to spend a gazillion dollars when Harper refused to do so, so Harper listened and now instead of a gazillion dollars in spending we have a billion in spending. I can only shudder when thinking what Dion/Layton would have done.

Toronto decides they would use this opportunity to try to strong-arm the Cons some more. What a dumb idea that was, they intentionally shot themselves in the foot.

So Toronto did get some funding in the end. But it's pretty damn hard to ensure they get equal funding if they chose to play hardball for months on end. The Cons are not supposed to be doing the job of Toronto city council.

Even the Ontario government sides with the feds on this one. If you take a look at john g's link, they are claiming that toronto did in fact get equal funding when you consider all the different proposals, and that it was the provincial liberals who chose the projects that received the money.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

Seriously, you think that all future Canadians should be expected to pay because, let's say it's Orangeville (and I say that because I haven't the faintest idea of unemployment there, Orangeville's political structure, how many ridings there are, the MPs holding the seats, etc.) has now got a subway system unto itself, the entire downtown core has been razed to the ground that new buildings might be erected in their place, every single subdivision has its own skating rink, pool, tennis courts, bowling alleys, etc. (and all city council and city employees have been taken away in straightjackets).

In spite of your dislike of the concept of stimulus funding from the get-go, you wouldn't be mightily incensed at this? You don't live in Orangeville, by chance, do you?
http://intensedebate.com/people/doug_rogers doug_rogers

Senator Palpatine seemed like a reasonable guy.
Style

we probably all agree that a program that spent $4B paving over Orangeville because nobody else in the entire country wanted any part of it would be a bad program. If this is surprising to you, it might be best if you stayed away from designing government programs.