Gerard Kennedy

The Toronto Star
Wed Dec 2 2009s
Byline: Les Whittington

A report on the Conservative government’s economic stimulus plan will say that 8,000 government-funded urban renewal projects have been launched across the country this year.

The Conservatives previously reported that Ottawa’s funding had helped get more than 4,000 road, bridge and other infrastructure projects under way by the end of September. The latest figures will double that estimate.

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on a visit to China, his government is to unveil the quarterly report Wednesday to Parliament on the economic program.

The Liberals on Tuesday accused the Harper government of misleading Canadians about Ottawa’s pro-growth program.

“Canadians are going to get an expensive fairy tale,” Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy said when asked about the report. “It’s going to be all promotion and no reality,” Kennedy (Parkdale-High Park) told reporters. “It’s unfortunate for Canadians that they are going to be misled by their own government.”

The 8,000 projects underway include more than 40 per cent of the projects announced under the flagship Infrastructure Stimulus Fund, The Canadian Press reported.

The $4 billion fund, which requires matching cash from provincial and municipal governments, has approved 3,226 projects, a spokesman for Transport Minister John Baird told the news agency. Of those projects, 1,390 – or 43 per cent – accounting for $1.4 billion in federal funding have moved beyond the announcement stage and work has started, Chris Day said.

Harper committed to compiling the quarterly reports on how quickly the government’s stimulus spending is getting out the door as a condition for Liberal support of the Conservatives’ 2009 budget. But the reports and the economic action plan have become a magnet for conflict between the Liberal opposition and the government.

For instance, the Liberals said their sampling of 1,000 projects showed that only 12 per cent of the infrastructure projects were creating any jobs by September.

They also say the government refuses to release information that would give the public a clear idea of how many jobs are being created by Ottawa’s infrastructure spending, which is costing taxpayers $16 billion over two years.

Kennedy, the Liberal infrastructure critic, said cities are required, as a condition for receiving funding from Ottawa, to regularly report job-creation numbers for urban renewal projects. But the government has refused to make these reports public, he said. “There can only be one reason – the Conservatives made false claims of ‘90 per cent of projects implemented’ and thousands of jobs created, while hiding the information that contradicts those claims.

Asked about this in the Commons, Baird said Kennedy was working with outdated information that is three or four weeks old.

Baird said the government’s spending is accomplishing its goal of stimulating economic activity.

“The economic action plan is working and we are continuing to make announcements and see construction begin in every corner of the country,” he told MPs.

(c) 2009 Torstar Corporation

Timmins-James Bay federal Liberal candidate Marilyn Wood and Parkdale-High Park Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy — his party’s critic for infrastructure, cities and communities — wanted to assure them, however, that their views still count.

Gerard Kennedy has written directly to every community organization in the riding, asking for their help to save national gun control by expressing their support and he appealed to area residents to do the same.

Regina – Federal Liberal Housing Critic Gerard Kennedy called on the Harper government today to increase funding for the Saskatchewan programs to prevent and reduce homelessness in the face of rising rents and a tight housing market.

Conservative Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has a different bottom line on his refugee reform bill after all. After having his “last, best, take-it-or-leave-it” offer rejected by the Liberal Party last Thursday, the Minister blinked and moved the yardsticks much closer to fair territory.