Gerard Kennedy

Mississauga News
Thu Oct 22  2009

A former Mississauga MP says the federal Conservative government is playing favourites by giving more money to potentially key Ontario swing ridings under its Recreational Infrastructure Canada (RinC) program.

And Mississauga has been treated badly, says former Mississauga-Erindale Liberal MPP Omar Alghabra.

“Ontario was allocated about $1.1 billion in Infrastructure Stimulus Fund money, translating to about $90 for each Ontarian,” Alghabra said.

“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. Mississauga received 23 per cent less than the provincial average,” Alghabra says.

Alghabra is the Liberal candidate nominated to oppose incumbent Mississauga-Erindale MP Bob Dechert, who took the riding by 397 votes in the last election.

Yesterday, Ontario MP Gerard Kennedy told reporters that Toronto’s 23 ridings – held by 21 Liberal MPs and two NDP MPs – got about 38 per cent less than the average Conservative riding in Ontario, prompting renewed accusations that the government was 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 approved for Conservative ridings in Ontario – a difference of $777,787, according to the Parkdale-High Park MP.

“This is simply unfair. We have these needs that are least as good as the needs anywhere else in the country. Why would this government play this game with Toronto?” Kennedy said in an interviewyesterday.

The RinC program, created in the Conservatives’ big-spending January budget to fight the recession, pledged $500 million nationwide to construct or repair recreational facilities such as hockey arenas, soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts and pools.

A look at the Mississauga ridings provides a study in contrasts. The riding of Mississauga South, held since 1993 by Liberal Paul Szabo, received $4.1 million for six projects, including the reconstruction of the Port Credit Arena for its 50th anniversary.

But the riding of Mississauga-Streetsville, where *Bonnie Crombie* beat Wajid Khan in a closely-watched race in the election Oct. 14, 2008 received no funding whatsoever, which she calls “distressing.

“There are a number of pools and hockey rinks that would, of course, need it,” she said. “(My constituents) feel like second-class citizens, like their recreational needs are worth less than those of Conservative ridings. Their votes don’t count as much.”

It was unclear yesterday whether applications had been made for stimulus money for recreational facilities in Crombie’s riding.

In Mississauga-Erindale, which is again expected to be a tight race, a relatively modest allocation of $1 million was made.

The Parry Sound-Muskoka riding of Industry Minister Tony Clement, who is in charge of the program, got the second-highest number of projects – 28 in all, worth a total of $2.4 million.

Top spot went to the Kenora riding of Conservative MP Greg Rickford, who took the riding from the Liberals last year. Kenora got funding for 35 projects totalling $6.7 million. But that was disputed by Conservatives who said top spot actually went to the NDP-held riding of Trinity-Spadina.

Under fire on Parliament Hill yesterday, Clement dismissed Liberal suggestions of a plot to favour Conservative ridings, saying the Liberals at Queen’s Park had a hand in picking the projects.

He insisted that the Toronto area had fared well. Records show the city got approval for 133 projects with a total value of $27.8 million.

“I think that’s a pretty good total for a city that has zero Conservative MPs,” Clement said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper told The Globe and Mail that if Conservative ridings have received more money, it is because Tory MPs have done a better job encouraging stimulus projects.

“Conservative MPs have been working very hard, obviously, in many cases securing projects for their ridings,” Harper told The Globe . “I would encourage the other parties to work equally hard.”

jstewart@mississauga.net
(c) 2009 Metroland Printing, Publishing & Distributing
Edition: Final

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