Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty were in Mississauga, Ont. this morning where, among other things, they announced that the two governments would jointly fund 43 highway projects in Ontario. Each jurisdiction would kick in about $69 million for a total investment of $138.7 million.
Now, even though Ontario's Liberal government would have played a major (and possibly the major) role in where that money will be spent, it turns out that that the vast majority of that money will be spent in — drum roll, please — ridings held by federal Conservative MPs. I've listed each project below and broken it down riding by riding. (And, as always, I welcome corrections if I've put one project or another in the wrong riding).
Of the $69 million in federal funds, $52 million will be spent on 24 projects in Conservative ridings. Ridings held by federal New Democrats will see 11 projects in this series of announcements which will get federal funding of a combined $10.17 million. There were just 4 projects in Liberal ridings that will divvy up just over $1 million in federal funding.
Let's compare that spending pattern against the seat distribution. Ontario has 106 seats in the House of Commons and the break down like this:
- Conservatives: 51
- Liberals: 38
- NDP: 17
As a percentage of all Ontario seats, here's that breakdown again:
- Conservatives: 48 %
- Liberals: 36 %
- NDP: 16 %
Today's announcement was about the disbursement of $69 million in federal funds and $69 million in provincial funds. Let's look at how that money was disbursed by riding by percentage:
- Conservatives: 75 %
- NDP: 15 %
- Liberals: 1 %
- (The balance – about 9 % – benefits multiple ridings or could not associated with a specific riding)
Here is the list of the projects announced today:
| Project Description | Federal Funding | Party which holds project riding | MP who holds project riding |
|---|---|---|---|
| East of Highway 400 easterly Orrville – Various highway rehabilitation | $2,050,000 | CPC | Clement |
| Highway 6 – Rehabilitation of highway from Tobermory southerly to Mar, 67 kilometres | $10,000,000 | CPC | Miller |
| Highway 7& 8 – Courtland Avenue to Highway 7 Interchange, Kitchener – Road rehabilitation | $1,200,000 | CPC | Woodworth |
| Highway 9 – Clifford to Mildmay – Road rehabilitation | $1,000,000 | CPC | Schellenberger/Miller |
| Highway 9 – Resurfacing of 2.4 kilometres west of Peel Road 50 to 1 kilometre west of Peel Road 7, 7.5 kilometres | $2,000,000 | CPC | Tilson |
| Highway 11 – Rehabilitation of Highway 11, from Oro Medonte line 5 to Memorial Avenue, 16 kilometres of resurfacing | $8,000,000 | CPC | Stanton |
| Highway 11 -Sedora Rd Underpass, south of Gravenhurst – Bridge rehabilitation | $500,000 | CPC | Clement |
| Highway 17 – East and West Kenora – Rehabilitation and resurfacing of highway | $3,050,000 | CPC | Rickford |
| Highway 21 – Road rehabilitation from Goderich to Sheppardton, 9 kilometres | $4,900,000 | CPC | Lobb |
| Highway 23 – Newry to Perth Line 84 – Road rehabilitation | $350,000 | CPC | Schellenberger |
| Highway 35 – Bridge rehabilitation of the Wilmot Creek Bridge | $250,000 | CPC | Oda |
| Highway 115 – Peterborough Road. 10 to Highway 7A – Road rehabilitation | $1,250,000 | CPC | Del Mastro |
| Highway 400 – Bridge rehabilitation of St. Vincent Bridge in Barrie | $1,500,000 | CPC | Brown_P |
| Highway 400 – Bridge rehabilitation of the Innisville Creek Bridge in Barrie | $250,000 | CPC | Brown_P |
| Highway 400 – Resurfacing of northbound lanes from North Junction of Highway 12 to the Severn River Bridge, 7.2 kilometres | $1,100,000 | CPC | Stanton |
| Highway 400 – Regional Road 88, Bradford – Bridge rehabilitation | $200,000 | CPC | Van Loan |
| Highway 401 – Bridge rehabilitation at the Stockdale Road Overpass in Trenton | $300,000 | CPC | Norlock |
| Highway 401 – Bridge rehabilitation of the Farewell Creek Bridge in Oshawa | $250,000 | CPC | Carrie |
| Highway 401 – Essex Road 42 Interchange 56 to Bloomfield Road eastbound lanes – Road rehabilitation | $2,450,000 | CPC | Watson |
| Highway 401 – Herley Road. Underpass, Colborne (Site #21-294) – Bridge rehabilitation | $750,000 | CPC | Norlock |
| Highway 401 – Orford Road to Furnival Road eastbound lanes – Road rehabilitation | $2,000,000 | CPC | Van Kesteren |
| Highway 403 – Resurfacing of QEW/Highway 403 to Highway 6 in Burlington | $4,150,000 | CPC | Raitt/Wallace |
| Highway 417 – Road rehabilitation from Highway 7 to Interchange 163 in Ottawa, 18 kilometres | $4,050,000 | CPC | O'Connor |
| Huntsville & Parry Sound – Highway resurfacing | $375,000 | CPC | Clement |
| Liskeard Lumber Road – Road upgrades and repairs | $140,000 | LPC | Rota |
| Highway 401 – Bridge rehabilitation of Dixie Road Bridge | $300,000 | LPC | Bains/Malhi |
| Highway 401 – Bridge rehabilitation on Renforth Road | $325,000 | LPC | Malhi |
| Highway 410 – Bridge rehabilitation of Donovan Creek Bridge | $250,000 | LPC | Dhalla/Malhi |
| St. Lawrence Parks Commission – Road & Bridge Repair – Road and bridge rehabilitation | $3,550,000 | ||
| Hamilton/Halton area – Various Bridge Repairs | $1,100,000 | ||
| Sudbury and North Bay areas – Highway resurfacing | $500,000 | ||
| York/Durham area – Various bridge repairs | $1,100,000 | ||
| McGraw Falls Bridge on Shabaqua Road – Replacement of existing water crossing infrastructure | $300,000 | NDP | Rafferty |
| North Englehart Management Unit (EMU) Road – Road rehabilitation | $50,000 | NDP | Angus |
| Spruce River Bridge on Black Sturgeon Road – Replacement of existing water crossing infrastructure | $250,000 | NDP | Hyer |
| Agawa River Bridge – Bridge rehabilitation | $1,250,000 | NDP | |
| Algoma area – Highway resurfacing | $500,000 | NDP | |
| Highway 11/17/61 Safety Initiatives – Reconstruction, resurfacing and the addition of paved shoulders between Mackenzie and Birch Beach. | $1,768,000 | NDP | Hyer |
| Highway 140 – Road rehabilitation from Highway 3 to Niagara Road. 23, 5.7 kilometres | $3,000,000 | NDP | Allen_Ma |
| Nat River Bridge, East of Foleyet – Bridge coating | $200,000 | NDP | Hughes |
| New Liskeard and Cochrane areas – Highway resurfacing | $500,000 | NDP | Angus |
| South Trout Creek Bridge, West of Nipigon – Bridge rehabilitation | $2,000,000 | NDP | Hyer |
| Thessalon River Bridge – Bridge rehabilitation | $350,000 | NDP | Hughes |
After many years of Liberal governments starving Cons ridings, is it any wonder the ridings most in need of infrastructure spending are Conservative ridings…..
David, this kind of attck on the Tories is getting really tiresome. As various people have commented before, Liberal ridings tend to be inner city ridings, and there is simply less scope for this type of construction.
As far as I know, Dalton McGuinty is an adult, a veteran politician, and well able to articulate what he wants. As you point out “Ontario's Liberal government would have played a major (and possibly the major) role in where that money will be spent”. Just perhaps it is in Mr. McGuinty's best interests to spend the money in those ridings that his party does not hold at this time. In any case, I doubt he would sit by quietly while the federal Conservative government spent the money where they wanted if it did not also suit him.
If you really wanted to do some investigative journalism, perhaps you could look at how much federal money has been spent in these ridings on road construction over the last ten years. That might provide somewhat more context than this kind of cherry-picking.
Actually most of those areas are represented by liberals provincially and secondly they are in desperate need of updating/fixing/rebuilding.
What kind of idiocy is this article? Since when should highway funds be spent according to the political flavor of the incumbent? Given the state of many roads and bridges in this province it makes sense to spend the money where it's need. It most definitely should not be spent according to the whims of a partisan hack like you, Mr. Akin.
Or perhaps you're merely engaging in your favorite sport of disparaging the CPC regardless of what they do.
The flaw in this kind of assessment is that the Liberals hold the majority of their seats inside the city of Toronto. I think it is intellectually dishonest to try and play politics with this, without taking that into account.
First of all, there is no MP named “Wentworth”
Secondly, a much more useful comparison would be miles of road vs. new projects.
Akin is a liberal shill. Instead of putting up a table listing where the money was spent in terms of ridings perhaps he could have used.. .let's see… a MAP???? Most of these roads were built by either the feds or the province and the local townships don't have the money to keep them up to speed. They are spending $8M in my township to resurface Hwy 11 that gets the crap beat of out of it by all the trucks and cars going from Toronto north… It would be very interesting to overlap this table with the Ontario Liberal parties distribution as well. I strongly suspect it would look pretty red because the Ontario Liberals won most of the seats. What an idiot. The dippers got a bunch of projects because they have BY far the largest land area covering much of the north… makes sense. Much ado about nothing. Akin… you are going to have to work a little bit harder to come up with a real story.
And in recent stimulus spending, one project alone in downtown TeeO was worth over $400Million. Downtown is solid NDP and Liberal nary a Conservative riding to be found. Maybe David could enlighten us as to just how much stimulus funding went to downtown TeeO.
Mr. Akin this story is proof positive you chose the correct career. A mathematician you are not. I am also starting to wonder about your ability as an investigative reporter as well. To claim you have uncovered some kind of subterfuge with this story is beyond belief in its naivety.
Given the tone of comments, you've hit a nerve David. Good work!