Buying our votes

By Howard Hampton
MPP Kenora-RR

If you get the opportunity to look at the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC) website, you will find some interesting and troubling facts. It never ceases to amaze me how much money flows just before an election, but seems to dry up just after, regardless of the North’s needs.
In the eight months following the October 10 election, less than $29-million in NOHFC funding was announced by the Liberal government’s Minister of Northern Development and Mines. Compare that to the eight months before the election, which saw more than $105-million announced through photo ops, press releases and great fanfare.
In the same amount of time, that’s three-and-a-half times more money announced before the election than after. But the government’s vote-buying tactics are even more apparent when you consider that within a four day span in early September - just before the election was called - the NOHFC announced a whopping $31-million worth of announcements. That is $2-million more than has been announced in the full eight months since the election.
Although the NOHFC receives only $60-million per year from the provincial government, almost $121-million worth of project funding was announced in the year before the election. This means that almost half of the money announced during the Liberal government’s first four-year term came in the last year before the election.
In the first three years of the government’s term, did the North not need the funding assistance to sustain jobs? Was the North not reeling from mill closures and lost jobs? Why did the Liberal government hold onto NOHFC money for three years just to open their wallet in the final months and days just before the election?
The North was reeling, with layoffs and closures announced regularly. But still the McGuinty Liberal government held onto money that could have, and should have, been used to help Northern Ontario over the course of four years.
There is little doubt that the North needs assistance to sustain and create jobs. Let’s hope we do not have to wait until just before the next election before NOHFC money once again flows as it should.
As Minister of Northern Development and Mines, Michael Gravelle is the chair of the NOHFC. He should stop the unseemly practice of banking funding to be used as fodder for pre-election photo ops.
Here are some interesting facts on NOHFC funding:
The last election campaign officially started on Monday, September 10th, 2007.
In the year preceding the election period, between September 14, 2006 and September 9, 2007, almost $121-million worth of NOHFC funding was announced. These announcements in the final year of the government’s first mandate account for 45.0 per cent of all NOHFC funding announced over the entire mandate. In the last year before the election, more NOHFC funding was announced than in the first two-and-a-half years of the government’s mandate.
In the three months preceding the start of the election, between June 11 and September 9, 2007, $97-million in NOHFC funding was announced. These announcements in the last three months of the government’s mandate accounted for more than a third of all NOHFC funding announced over four years. In three months just before the election, more NOHFC funding was announced than in the first 28 months of the government’s mandate.
In the three weeks just before writ was dropped, between August 20 and September 7, 2007, close to $50-million in NOHFC funding was announced. These announcements accounted for almost 20 per cent of all NOHFC funding announced over 4 years. In three weeks just before the election, more NOHFC funding was announced than in the first 63 weeks of the government’s mandate.
In the four days just before the election started, between September 4 and September 7, 2007, more than $31-million in NOHFC funding was announced. In just four days immediately before the election, the McGuinty government announced 11.6 per cent of all NOHFC funding made over four years. In four days just before the election, that’s more NOHFC funding than was announced in the first 370 days of the government’s mandate.
The question is obvious. Is the NOHFC being used as little more than a slush fund that tries to fool Northerners with pre-election photo-ops? You decide.
In the eight months since the election, the NOHFC has announced less than $29-million in funding. At this current rate of announcements, the NOHFC will bank more than $25-million this year to be announced in the pre-election period of 2011, regardless of the immediate hurt McGuinty government policies cause Northern Ontario.