Money for economic development
Northumberland MPP Lou Rinaldi announced $80 million for economic development to the Eastern Ontario municipalites as part of a Liberal promise, if elected.
It is no surprise his opponents cried foul, saying this is merely an election ploy.
If this is the level of discourse Northumberland County residents can expect during the election, then we are in serious trouble. This kind of scripted nonsense is beneath a group of children having a disagreement in the school yard.
Economic development is as mysterious as a blackhole in space and just as good at sucking up money instead of matter. Before one penny of tax dollars are spent, let us see an accounting of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that get thrown at these programs by all three levels of government. Where are the neo-cons when you need them?
A good cost analysis will reveal a lot. Yet, it would be a reasonable suspicion to think there is very little return. Competition between municipalities for industry is bloody. One can only imagine what Belleville council did to secure the new Kellogg's plant. Even our own Diamond Triangle commission could barely co-operate due to the inequities.
Besides, taxpayers should be demanding a dollar for dollar comparison. For every tax dollar spent on economic development, how many dollars sre being returned to the community in taxes, jobs and other contributions. That's what should be the bottom line
Of course any financial announcement is an election ploy. Come on. We are not that stupid. The opposition is going to need to do a lot better. And, so is Rinaldi
It is no surprise his opponents cried foul, saying this is merely an election ploy.
If this is the level of discourse Northumberland County residents can expect during the election, then we are in serious trouble. This kind of scripted nonsense is beneath a group of children having a disagreement in the school yard.
Economic development is as mysterious as a blackhole in space and just as good at sucking up money instead of matter. Before one penny of tax dollars are spent, let us see an accounting of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that get thrown at these programs by all three levels of government. Where are the neo-cons when you need them?
A good cost analysis will reveal a lot. Yet, it would be a reasonable suspicion to think there is very little return. Competition between municipalities for industry is bloody. One can only imagine what Belleville council did to secure the new Kellogg's plant. Even our own Diamond Triangle commission could barely co-operate due to the inequities.
Besides, taxpayers should be demanding a dollar for dollar comparison. For every tax dollar spent on economic development, how many dollars sre being returned to the community in taxes, jobs and other contributions. That's what should be the bottom line
Of course any financial announcement is an election ploy. Come on. We are not that stupid. The opposition is going to need to do a lot better. And, so is Rinaldi
posted by Robert Washburn at
2:38 PM
1 Comments:
You are so right Economic development is a mantra repeated by the ignorant of ignorant politicians trying to impress the unwashed. The lack of accounting of the millions (at least 50) doled out in the last few years to Eastern Ontario is a bloody scandal. How many projects never see the light of day after the first grant? How many projects are pet projects of favoured agencies and how many projects are local government projects that should have been funded by another level of government?
And more importantly how many ties do we have to fund the investigation of valuable issues that never get funding after the initial grant. Transportation and High Speed Internet Access come to mind immediately. We fund the favoured agency to do a study and then fail to fund the operation of the study. Why because they study unsustainable projects and then refuse to fund them because they fail to find partners to sustain them. Kafka would have loved it. Meanwhile because it is done in the name of Economic Development money can be pissed away!!
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