The federal riding represented in Ottawa by John Weston has received a proportionally larger share of the federal economic stimulus funding pie than most others in British Columbia, the Conservative Member of Parliament said in an interview last week.
But there won't be any grace periods beyond the deadline of March 31, 2011 for local officials who may be struggling to meet that deadline for completing projects funded through the Tory government's Economic Action Plan, the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP said on Thursday (July 29).
He said the stimulus funding handed out beginning in 2009 was meant to help kick-start the economy during the global recession, and has succeeded to a large degree in doing that, Weston said.
He said the Powell River area has at least five projects that received funding through the various federal economic stimulus programs and that local governments there are struggling to meet the March 31 deadline. He said he's confident they'll succeed.
"Certainly, that which was agreed to in the commitment between the federal government and the municipalities has to be done and there will be no extension," he said.
"There are, I think, about 60,000 projects across the country and I think people who are familiar with the Economic Action Plan recognize that [the deadlines] are at least part of the reason for its success.
"The local leaders have assured me that these projects will be completed on time and that they'll be able access not only the federal money, but also, in some cases, the matching money - in some cases two or three times the amount - from the provincial government."
Weston said some $210 million in federal funding has flowed to the riding so far during his term.
He touted Cultural Capitals funding and the recent $170,000 in support through the Feds' Marquee Tourism Events Program for the Crankworx mountain bike festival as examples of support for Whistler. The Crankworx funding was secured after two earlier rejections, Weston said.
Similarly, the $2 million federal grant to Squamish's West Coast Railway Heritage Park construction project came after two rejections.
"People in my office work directly with the councils and mayors and there's a high level of engagement there, and we've then gone out and organized the priorities and pursued them," he said.
Asked about the recent flap over the government's plans to scrap the mandatory long-form census, Weston said controversy on the issue has been driven by opposition politicians and the media.
Critics have accused the Conservatives of manufacturing anxiety over the privacy aspects of the mandatory long form, which statisticians and some local government officials say has supplied reliable data on which to base decisions about future initiatives.
By scrapping the long form, they say, the Tories are trying to reduce the reliability of that data in an attempt to undermine social programs that they tend to oppose.
Weston said the government is scrapping the census to safeguard Canadians' privacy and make government more efficient.
"We've received a few emails about it, [but] in the hundreds of discussions with people since this issue arose, not one has brought it up," Weston said. "It's a non-partisan issue and it's being done to improve the governance of our country."
