by Judi McLeod
May 31, 2004
When it comes to rotting infrastructure, the Paul Martin Liberals are making Canada, "The Land of Broken Promises". The lion’s share of $250 million Martin gave–"arm’s length of the Government of Canada"--to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) beginning in 2000’s federal budget was never invested in infrastructure, but on a bevy of cherry-picked FCM, "green" projects.
With the Water Main Break Clock still ticking, Canadians are paying millions of dollars a year in broken water mains that jeopardize the safety of their own drinking water.
a "New Deal for Cities" is now dominating election-time talk for Martin.
But if anyone still remembers, it was Finance Minister Paul Martin who created Green Municipal Funds with a federal government investment of $125 million in Budget 2000. an additional investment of $125 million over five years to expand the existing Green Municipal Enabling Fund doubled the original federal allocation in 2001.
The $250 million came at a time when a guy called Toronto Councillor Jack Layton was FCM President. Now national New Democrat Party leader, Layton is duking it out on the federal election hustings with Martin. Neither party has ever addressed the issue of Canada’s rotting infrastructure.
With broken watermains sprouting precious water into the air in municipalities across Canada, FCM spent their Martin money "urging municipal governments, through their own operations and policies, to support the principles and agreements adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit, as well as the framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the Biodiversity Convention."
Shamefully, the $250 million allocation, which would have gone a long way to secure municipal water supplies, coincided in the same year as the Walkerton E coli water contamination tragedy, which caused seven deaths and sickened more than 2,000. Ironically, "Think Globally, act Locally" was the FCM green policy theme, with environmental issues, such as Climate Change, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Pesticides and Endangered Species legislation topping their priority list.
among the first 12 projects to get FCM’s Green Municipal Enabling Money was $13,000 to New Westminster, B.C. "to conduct a green review (Emphasis added) of its new fire hall and administrative center." The review was "to study ways to protect habitat, conserve resources and develop a computerized energy model to estimate pollutant emissions and operating costs."
Nor was Martin unaware of how the Green Municipal Enabling Fund was being spent.
Martin was on the public record at a Parliament Hill reception immediately following the FCM endowment, where he stressed "the influence FCM’s submission had on (the 2000) budget, which allocated federal resources to the Green Investment and Green Enabling Funds."
In his own words, Martin liked the FCM ideas so much, he says he "presented them as (my) own". "It’s overwhelmingly the most focused, the most comprehensive and the best presentation I have seen as Minister of Finance. It was that presentation that allowed me, when I went through the budget, to stand up and tell the Canadian people that it was my idea." (Emphasis added).
The hypocrisy of Martin and Layton on Canada’s rotting infrastructure has yet to surface in the federal election campaign.
Martin and Company represent a government that spent $2 billion on a gun registry and a scandalous sponsorship program while infrastructure is rotting under the feet of Canadian taxpayers.
Layton, who accuses Martin of killing the homeless, led the charge to ban chlorine as a Toronto councillor in 1996, a move which would have taken a terrible toll in human lives.
Conservative Party candidates who served as municipal councillors, including Tom Jackson of Hamilton Mountain, openly lament the Liberals’ broken promises on infrastructure. They believe infrastructure, rather than a gun registry, should be a top priority.
"The Liberal government’s record on broken promises on infrastructure is as disturbing as it is disgraceful," Jackson told Canada Free Press. "Paul Martin, who promised much needed attention to infrastructure did zero during his 10 years as finance minister."
"It’s a shame," said Conservative candidate, Burlington Councillor Michael Wallace. "We’re talking about services as vital as sewers and water lines."
In his last column in FCM’s Forum magazine, outgoing FCM President Yves Ducharme called Martin’s election-talk New Deal for Cities "a triumph for FCM and a testament to the work of municipal officials across the country."
"Municipal governments deliver services and infrastructure that directly contributes to people’s quality of life. It is this fundamental municipal role that must be harnessed and bolstered in a national partnership."
But at FCM’s annual Conference in Edmonton last week, the talk was not about infrastructure but about "how Canada is lagging behind many countries in the number of women elected to local governments." Supported by $170,000 in funding from Status of Women Canada, FCM called for "a national strategy to involve women in municipal decision-making."
Out on the federal hustings, Martin and Layton continue to accuse each other of selling-out municipalities on green funding.
Meanwhile, the Water Main Break Clock is still ticking.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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