The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.
Tony Clement has to go. His time as the boss of FedNor needs to end. Failing that, it’s time the Harper Conservatives admit they just aren’t interested in the concept of a regional economic development agency for Northern Ontario and end the farce that FedNor has become.
A news release issued Friday touted the creation of youth employment “across Northern Ontario” through the funding of 15 internships. As with most government press releases, it tries to make a big deal out of something that really won’t have a big impact. In fact, many of the internships are with organizations funded through taxpayers, so really it’s just draining the FedNor pot to help other tax spenders make their books look good.
What’s appalling is that seven of the 15 internships are in Clement’s riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka. The lone Northwestern Ontario riding represented by a Conservative didn’t fair so good. Greg Rickford’s Kenora riding accounted for zero out of 15 internships. Maybe if Rickford — or anyone not named Tony Clement — was the FedNor minister, the distribution wouldn’t have been so heavily weighted in one riding.
Clement clearly has not learned his lesson, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper clearly has not realized he needs to reel in this guy. The critics of the exorbitant costs of the G8 and G20 economic summits hosted by Canada in 2010 had particular complaints about Clement’s role in Parry Sound-Muskoka getting funding for projects that had a tenuous-at-best connection to the actual summit.
Only unbridled arrogance can explain how Clement can somehow survive that storm and then allow his riding to dominate a $400,000 internship program for Northern Ontario.
Most Northerners still don’t understand what Parry Sound-Muskoka is doing in FedNor jurisdiction in the first place. Many of the seven internships are 150 to 180 kilometers south of North Bay, which along with the Mattawa River to the east and the French River to the west, represents what was the traditional pre-Clement unofficial boundary line for Northern Ontario.
Places like Port Carling, Bracebridge, Huntsville and Gravenhurst have closer ties to Orillia and Barrie than to Northern Ontario.
Also seemingly missed here is the fact the Parry Sound-Muskoka has not faced anything close to the economic downturn that has been seen through most of the real Northern Ontario. While towns die in the wake of the forest industry’s collapse, FedNor funds Toronto’s weekend playground.
Perhaps you could argue Clement is a great MP who is doing a good job of looking after his riding. Fair enough. Now lets strip him of ministerial influence and see how his performance compares to the majority of MPs.