2009-10-27
OTTAWA — A $50-million federal fund set up to build infrastructure for next June’s G8 summit is being spent partly on projects that are far from the summit site and with tenuous links to the high-powered meeting.
Industry Minister Tony Clement announced the low-profile fund last February, explaining that the fund was being “provided for G8 Summit related infrastructure, including a G8 Centre in Huntsville.”
Huntsville, Ont., will host the meeting. The town of 18,000 is in Clement’s riding, about 215 kilometres north of Toronto, and is best known for being at the heart of prime cottage country for Toronto’s wealthier class.
Huntsville has received the largest share of the money, mainly $16.7 million for a new G8 Centre, $9 million for a summit management office and $2.4 million for improvements to the road by the resort where the meeting is to take place.
But a partial list of the fund’s projects, and a series of news releases, shows that many of the towns in Clement’s riding are receiving money from the fund to build band shells, plant gardens and put up signs and lights.
Research on the spending was carried out independently by The Canadian Press alone, but the Liberal party said it would release its own analysis after being contacted for comment on numbers.
One news release announced $1.1 million to upgrade a street and replace trees in Parry Sound, Ont., some 80 kilometres away from the summit site.
Clement also announced $194,000 for a large “welcome granite stone” and new lighting for a concert stage, also in Parry Sound.
The area just south of Parry Sound is receiving $745,000 for signs, fencing and landscaping in the towns of Rosseau, Humphrey and Orrville.
The towns of Port Severn and South River, many kilometres from the summit, are each getting $65,000 for signs and landscaping, too.
“They’re somewhat disconnected (from the summit), for sure, Parry Sound and Port Severn,” said Huntsville Mayor Claude Doughty.
Bala Falls Road, a small road about 50 kilometres from the summit via another back road, is getting $400,000 for improvements.
“How is this justified? In what way is this going to improve the G8?” said Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy, who said he has completed a separate analysis of the G8 fund, with similar conclusions.
“This is largesse of the old style.”
Huntsville will be host of the G8 meeting at the end of June, but it hasn’t yet been decided if it will also be hosting the much larger G20 summit that is to be held around the same time. It’s also not clear that the spread-out towns receiving summit money will get any attention from the visiting delegations.
Last month, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada would host both summits. G20 leaders in Pittsburgh agreed to make the G20 the most important economic decision-making body in the world, shunting aside the G8.
Canada had initially resisted the decision, but eventually agreed as long as both summits took place here.
At the time, Harper said the larger G20 summit would also be held in the Muskokas, as the cottage country north of Toronto near Huntsville is known.
But a final decision for the location has not yet been announced.
There are rumblings that, despite the $50 million set aside for in summit infrastructure, the region can’t handle such a large meeting, and that Toronto would be far more convenient.
The Pittsburgh summit had more than 30 delegations and thousands of police and security officers.
It’s also uncertain whether the leaders and their delegations will stick with their original plan of getting to Huntsville by flying to North Bay, Ont. The city is about 100 kilometres north of Huntsville.
The airport there is receiving $5 million from the G8 Infrastructure Fund. But there are concerns that, with only one runway, it won’t be big enough to handle so many foreign dignitaries, and that Toronto’s airport is better equipped and more secure, sources said.
Clement’s riding is already the subject of scrutiny for receiving funding for dozens and dozens of projects through the federal government’s array of stimulus packages.
According to an analysis released by the Prime Minister’s Office, his Parry Sound-Muskoka riding received $3.2 million for 33 projects under the Recreational Infrastructure program.
A list of other infrastructure funds posted on the Transport Canada website points to at least 42 other building projects worth more than $28 million, sprinkled throughout the riding as a form of stimulus. Those numbers were compiled by The Canadian Press.
And even though the area has a fairly low unemployment rate, it has also received millions from the Community Adjustment Fund, set up to help struggling small towns adapt to the global economic crisis.
The G8 Infrastructure Fund is in addition to that money. There is no central spot on the government’s websites to find a list of projects paid for by the fund, nor is there a list of criteria.
Requests for such information were referred to Transport Minister John Baird’s office.
His officials did not immediately return calls. Both he and Clement have said repeatedly that some specific funds may favour some areas, but overall, the government’s stimulus package is fair and effective.