Owen Sound will send Premier Dalton McGuinty a letter to thank him for his understanding of the city’s financial constraints in regard to the regional recreation centre.
And a letter will also be sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, urging him to reconsider a federal decision to bring a 47-billion dollar stimulus program to an end early next year.
City council unanimously approved on Monday night a motion from Councillor Bill Twaddle, who raised the issue and mentioned comments that McGuinty made at a premiers’ conference last week in Winnipeg.
McGuinty talked about the scheduled end to stimulus funding next March, by which time projects such as the Rec Centre in Owen Sound must be substantially finished in order to receive full funding from the federal and provincial governments.
The premier said it’s important that the upper levels of government continue to work together to ensure that all current stimulus projects are completed regardless of the deadline next March 31st.
Twaddle says he almost did handstands when he heard McGuinty’s remarks, saying they virtually reduce by half the risk that Owen Sound would be left to cover any financial shortfalls after the deadline passes.
It’s expected that the rec centre won’t be completed until March 2012, one year after the deadline.
The task is now to convince the federal government of the merits of a continued stimulus program, and Twaddle says public comments made on Monday by the parliamentary budget officer could make that easier.
Kevin Page said as many as half of the 2,902 stimulus projects across the country may not be finished on time, meaning more than 500 million dollars worth of funding would go unclaimed.
It confirms what Owen Sound officials have always believed, that theirs is far from the only project to have run into delays that will push completion past March 2011.
Given the number of municipalities in the same boat, it strengthens Twaddle’s argument that the federal and provincial government will find it extremely difficult to turn off the funding taps with so many projects left unfinished.
In addition to the letters to Harper and McGuinty, the latter of which will commend the premier for “his well-informed and courageous lead,” council will also write to local MPs and MPPs, as well as the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.
