The YMCA and you — and the Canadian taxpayer

My career has taken me, among other places, into positions in newsrooms in Toronto, Orillia, Ont. and Thunder Bay, Ont..

At those stops and elsewhere, one of the first things I did upon arriving in the community was look for the local YMCA so I could find a group to play pickup basketball. In Orillia, the YMCA was a relatively new building when I signed up. 'Y' volunteers in the community had engaged in considerable fundraising to build that YMCA and, as a new member, I paid a one-time 'capital' fee to help with the facility's cost.

It was the same story in Oakville, Ont., where I lived while working in the Toronto newsrooms at National Post and The Globe and Mail. A beautiful new YMCA facility opened up a few years ago in Oakville after a lengthy community fundraising campaign and after I and every other new member paid a one-time building development fee.

In Thunder Bay, though, the YMCA shut down before my arrival, partly because a fundraising campaign was not successful. Luckily for me, I could find a pickup game of basketball at Lakehead University's gym.

It's like that in communities across the country: YMCA volunteers work hard to raise money locally and tap their own members for a little financial help. If they don't, they don't get a new building.

It works a bit differently in St. John's, NF, apparently. There, the YMCA folks who want a new building can rely on the largesse of the federal government. The federal government, through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, is spending 1.5 million of the tax dollars collected from people in Oakville and Orillia and Thunder Bay and elsewhere to build a new $11.3 million YMCA facility in St. John's. (At $11.3 million, that will be one sweet 'Y'!)

The money will be administered by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (Keith Ashfield, Minister) though an ACOA official says the funding actually comes out of budgets administered by Infrastructure Canada (John Baird, Minister).

Here's ACOA's mandate:

“The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency works with business and communities to make Atlantic Canada's economy more innovative, productive and competitive. Together, with Atlantic Canadians, we are building a stronger economy.”

It's not really clear how funding a YMCA fits in with that mandate to “build a stronger economy” but here's the regional political minister, Peter MacKay, trying to rationalize that spending in the ACOA press release:

“The new YMCA-YWCA facility will provide broad-based health, fitness, and recreational programs for the growing population of St. John's and surrounding area,” said Minister MacKay. “It will help increase participation by individuals and families of all ages, abilities and incomes. Through ACOA, our Government keeps Atlantic Canada moving forward by investing in projects like this that improve municipal infrastructure, and the health and well-being of residents, making everyday life better for all Canadians.”

MacKay, when he was minister responsible for ACOA, spent federal tax dollars in a way that might seem to stretch the definitions of ACOA's mandate. A few days before the federal election was called, for instance, MacKay announced ACOA would give $50,000 to the Sobey's Slam Curling Tournament to be held in MacKay's Nova Scotia riding. On the same day, MacKay announced $2 million would be spent to establish a farmer's market in Halifax, a city which has been around since 1841 without needing $2 million for a farmer's market.