» DETAILS: Click here for a complete list of where exactly the money is going (EXCEL spreadsheet)
Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s riding of Central Nova is the big winner, with $87.7 million in stimulus money, 13 times as much as the $6.6 million being spent in Dartmouth, held by a Liberal. In fact, Mr. MacKay’s riding received more money than all five Liberal ridings in the province combined.
After Central Nova comes NDP Halifax, which benefited from university infrastructure spending, then two more Conservative ridings: West Nova, where the feds are spending $41.1 million, and South Shore-St. Margarets, with $33.4 million.
The analysis by The Chronicle Herald supports the conclusions reached by a federal Liberal party report, which found that Conservative ridings across the country have been getting more federal economic stimulus funding than opposition-held ridings have.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister John Baird has rejected the Liberal analysis.
"The Liberals . . . are up to political mischief," he recently told the National Post. "I think any fair examination of all our infrastructure programs will show they’re pretty fairly distributed."
In Nova Scotia, though, the projects announced so far do not appear to be fairly distributed.
If the $322 million in federal stimulus funding so far announced were divided evenly among Nova Scotia’s 11 federal ridings, each riding would get $29 million. Central Nova is receiving about three times that much, while Dartmouth has received only a fourth of that amount.
Most of the stimulus money was negotiated between the Harper government and the provincial government of former premier Rodney MacDonald. The metro Halifax ridings — which lacked Conservative representation at either the federal or provincial level — got the smallest amounts of money, except for Halifax, which benefited from university infrastructure spending.
Much of the money for Central Nova is in the form of two highway bypasses at Antigonish, for a total of $45 million — projects that will benefit the whole province, according to Dan Dugas, a spokesman for Mr. MacKay.
Mr. Dugas pointed out that the federal funding is not decided only by the feds.
"There are three levels of government involved in the selection and the funding, so there are three levels of accountability," he said.
He also pointed out that the final numbers may paint a different picture than this database does.
"When you look at figures out of context, you paint a picture that isn’t complete," he said.
One federal Liberal riding that did well is Sydney-Victoria, which got $30 million. Liberals note, however, that much of that money went into the provincial riding of Cape Breton North, held by Progressive Conservative MLA Cecil Clarke.
New Democrat MP Peter Stoffer, whose Sackville-Eastern Shore riding received only $8 million, said the numbers show the federal Tories are spending money to look after their political interests.
"It appears that Conservatives looked after themselves first and everyone else second," he said. "This is understandable in pork-barrel politics. They would be screaming and yelling if the situation were reversed, if the Liberals or New Democrats had done that."
Things would have been better if the stimulus had been handed directly to municipalities using the gas-tax formula, said Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking.
"It could have been rolled out quicker," the Liberal said. "It could have been rolled out fairer, and I think the accountability, they didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. They could have just taken a page from the U.S. book."
The final accounting will show that the money was handed out fairly, said Chris Day, a spokesman for Mr. Baird.
"We’re quite confident that, when judged on the totality of our infrastructure investments, each region will get its fair share," he said Monday. "Bottom line is: three levels of government are involved in selecting and funding projects. That’s three levels of accountability to taxpayers."
The independent parliamentary budget officer and opposition politicians have complained that the federal government has made it difficult to figure out where the stimulus money is going, in contrast to the United States, where details of all the spending are available online.
The main federal website tracking the spending — actionplan.gc.ca — has a map of the country with icons showing projects but no details about the amount of spending or the schedule.
Several weeks ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a reporter at a news conference in Oakville, Ont., that he could produce a list of projects across the country. Despite repeated requests from The Chronicle Herald, the prime minister’s office has yet to produce such a list.
The Chronicle Herald compiled a database of federal stimulus projects using several lists on the federal government’s Building Canada website. The longest list — Nova Scotia Infrastructure Initiatives — is missing the dollar amount for many of the projects, so the newspaper acquired them from the provincial and municipal governments.
The paper also included all projects that aren’t on the lists but have been the subject of news releases under the federal government’s Economic Action Plan — for example, $10.3 million in federal funding for the Lunenburg County Lifestyle Centre, a new recreation centre planned for Bridgewater, in Conservative MP Gerald Keddy’s riding of South Shore-St. Margarets.
Two large funding commitments in Tory ridings weren’t added to the list because they were not made under the Economic Action Plan. They are $66 million in funding for CFB Greenwood, including a new recreation centre, in Conservative MP Greg Kerr’s riding of West Nova, and $12 million for a new recreation centre in Pictou County, in Mr. MacKay’s riding.
Mr. MacKay announced the sports centre in Pictou County in March, although the municipalities in the region had not agreed to provide their share of the funding.
"Making a difference at home is the reason I ran for public office," said the release from Mr. MacKay. "That’s why it gave me great pleasure to announce $12 million on behalf of the Government of Canada for the Pictou County Wellness Centre."
The release does not state under which federal program the recreation centre will be funded, which is unusual.
Several similar projects in opposition-held ridings have been unable to get federal money even though they, unlike the Pictou County centre, have firm funding commitments from the provincial and municipal governments.
In Halifax Regional Municipality, for instance, the federal government refused to provide funding for a new four-rink complex for Bedford, amid rumours of backroom manoeuvring by local Tories who support a rival project.
A Colchester County recreation centre has funding commitments from the province, the county and the town of Truro, but the federal government has yet to offer any money, although Mr. MacKay signalled during the provincial election that money would eventually be forthcoming.
A federal byelection in the riding of Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley is to be held Nov. 9, and Ottawa can’t deliver a funding commitment until the campaign is over. The traditionally Conservative riding was held by Bill Casey, who defied Mr. Harper over the Atlantic accord and then sat as an Independent. He resigned in April to become Nova Scotia’s representative in Ottawa.
Greg MacArthur, Truro’s deputy mayor, said he expects a cheque from Ottawa after the byelection, as Mr. MacKay has indicated the rec centre project will get federal support.
"I said that Mr. MacKay is not going to lie to 50,000 people," Mr. MacArthur said. "He’s an honest man and he’ll show up with the funding."
WHERE THE MONEY IS GOING
Federal stimulus spending, by riding:
Conservative ridings
Central Nova: 32 projects, $87,702,343
South Shore-St. Margarets: 39 projects, $33,493,446
West Nova: 42 projects, $41,162,998
Total: $162,358,787
Liberal ridings
Cape Breton-Canso: 24 projects, $18,771,176
Halifax West: 6 projects, $7,992,432
Kings-Hants: 19 projects, $15,653,857
Sydney-Victoria: 35 projects, $33,267,380.67
Dartmouth: 7 projects, $6,646,292
Total: $82,331,137.67
NDP ridings
Halifax: 12 projects, $45,008,653.33
Sackville-Eastern Shore: 7 projects, $8,050,735
Total: 53,059,388.33
Independent ridings
Cumberland-Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley: 30 projects, $24,746,730
Total of all spending: $322,496,043
Sources: The following online lists of federal program spending — Nova Scotia Infrastructure Initiatives, Recreational Infrastructure Canada Program, Community Adjustment Fund, Knowledge Infrastructure Program, 2009 Government of Canada Economic Action Plan news releases.
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