NDP leader Howard Hampton last week welcomed news the provincial and federal governments will be spending more than $6 billion on long-awaited infrastructure projects across Ontario, but wondered why it took so long for the agreement to be reached.
“While New Democrats welcome today’s infrastructure announcement, municipalities across Ontario are still in an infrastructure deficit and communities are suffering because of it,” Hampton said last Thursday.
“Some of the projects, including highway improvements in my riding of Kenora-Rainy River, have needed government money for years,” he noted.
“Dalton McGuinty, Stephen Harper, and their deputies could have hammered out this deal long ago,” Hampton charged. “Instead, we were treated to a tit-for-tat barrage of insults and finger-pointing between Queen’s Park and Ottawa.
“Ontarians were not well-served by the childish antics that held up this kind of announcement.”
Hampton said the McGuinty government’s infrastructure investment are far short of the money municipalities urgently need to replace aging roads, bridges, and water systems.
Hampton added he wants to see the money flow immediately.
“We’ve often been treated to infrastructure photo-ops and made-for-television spectacles from the McGuinty government,” he said. “Since the beginning of last year alone, there have been five such grand announcements.
“Let’s get the money flowing and the shovels in the ground,” he stressed.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
