Federal Stimulus Funds for Yarmouth YMCA

It was a great day for the residents of Yarmouth County, West Nova MP Greg Kerr announced an investment of $375,578.00 in the Yarmouth YMCA.

The investment represents about 1/3 of the dollars required to do some needed repairs and maintenance on the building.  YMCA Executive Director Barrie McGregor said, "The Yarmouth YMCA is a long-standing institution in this community and I'm pleased that the Government of Canada, through ACOA, is able to help fund these extensive renovations so that its facilities can be enjoyed for many years to come."

Upgrades include refurbishing the youth change rooms (I have two boys in the swim program and can say the change rooms are well beyond their expiry date!), replacing existing lighting, completing electrical and mechanical improvements, replacing the roof and windows and a variety of internal repairs.

The local municipalities, who help in the operation of the area's only pool, will also be helping in the community's 2/3 contribution.  The glaring omission is the lack of funding from the Provincial Government.  Usually this kind of project is supported in a 1/3 1/3 1/3 funding arrangement, but after tons of meetings and proposals, the Province did not want to help the project in Yarmouth like they did in other communities recently and stuck the area in finding 2/3 on their own. 

Thank goodness that we have strong federal and municipal representation on this project, looks like once again the NDP forgot that there is a Nova Scotia beyond an hour's drive from HRM.

Graham's Wonderful Traveling Roadshow

Nova Scotia Finance Minister Graham Steele is looking for your help.  Quoting from the "Back to Balance" page on the Provincial Government's consultation with Nova Scotians in regards to the 2010-11 budget;

The Government of Nova Scotia has a serious problem—and needs your help to solve it.  

As a province, we are spending more than we are taking in.  The resulting shortfall, or deficit, must be covered each year by borrowing money. This adds to the large debt the province already has.

I know what your thinking, your thinking, "Chris, your just sore that you lost the last election and don't want to be blamed for the deficit."

If we were responsible for the deficit, we'd admit it and move on, but the NDP's own review of the books showed, that after the election, the province was only 53 million dollars in the red.  An amount that could have been delt with over the course of the year.  That 53 million grew to become 590 million, what a great shell game the government was playing while we were out summer vacationing.  Minister Steele is now saying the sky is falling and that within 3 years the Provincial deficit will be close to 1.4 billion

Friday saw the Steele Show roll into town.  I've gotta give credit where credit is due, Graham was masterful in his manipulation of the 140 or so people in attendance.  He knew that if he didn't address the Ferry issue that the rest of the  meeting would go bad so he mentioned it and then, to his credit, spoke directly with the 20 or so ferry workers in attendance.  (the first time any NDP Cabinet Minister has come to Yarmouth and spoken to those affected)

After the tables worked on the questions that were asked in the workbook it was time for presentations.  Each table took 60 or so seconds to speak to things like more dollars for eduction, streamlining government departments and keeping the ferry link to New England in order create tax dollars.

There were lots of great ideas but of course the over arching idea was to keep the ferry service in place.  Again to Graham's credit, he allowed Ken Winters from the CAT to have the last word.  Ken of course reiterated all of our disappointment in how this file was handled by Percy Paris and the Premier.

I can say, quite opposite to Minister Steele's desired outcome, there was no consensus on increasing the provincial portion of the HST by 2 points.  It was really felt that the government has enough tax dollars now.  

Much to the credit of the residents of the area, there was a great consensus in keeping our Ferry! 

My Expenses

I've seen a few comments directed at me about the MLA expense fiasco.

When I wrote the last Blog, the Speaker had not released the full letter and appendices from the Auditor General, as was asked by our Caucus on three occasions.  The Caucuses were alerted be the Speaker's Office to the names in the letter which, as you know, included names like Richard Hurlburt and Darrell Dexter on Wednesday last week.

Once we finally got a copy of the full document we found other references to MLAs in the appendices, including my name.  I was listed on a page called duplicates payments to be recovered.  They were two separate items;

1. August and September 2008, $100.00 for le Conseil Acadian de Par-en-bas (duplicate)
2. June and July 2008, $378.00 for a Roots Briefcase (duplicate)

So my total to be repaid for this accounting error is $478.00 and the cheque is written and will be dropped to the Speakers office on Tuesday when I'm back in the city.  

The frustrating part about this is how all this was handled by the Speaker.  It was very apparent that in the independent officer of the house (The Speaker) had shared this information with the Premier or Premier's office and has holding it back.  It was our belief that there should be full release of the information, regardless of the contents, to the public so that we as MLAs can get on with creating a better expense system.

I've always tried my best to be accurate and transparent with my expenses and will figure out how to start posting a spreadsheet that will allow all constituents to see them.

The Politics of Expense Claims

I hope this past week was as eventful for you as it was for me.  

When I picked politics as my profession, or rather it pick me, I knew that I would be classed with used car salesmen and traffic accident chasing attorneys.  But I have always felt that this is a valued profession, one with sense of duty and responsibility for your constituents.  

On Wednesday,  Nova Scotia Auditor General Jacques Lapointe presented a scathing review of MLA expenses, more specifically the seeming lack of regulation when it came to certain expenses.  A long list of excessive purchases came to light including 8000 dollar generators to 700 dollar expresso machines.  Mind you all these items were deemed acceptable purchases, according to the regulations that are set by the all party Internal Economy Board and executed by MLAs and staff at the Speakers office.  The AG was very clear that nothing was "illegal" and has not referred this to the RCMP for further investigation.

The public has every right to be outraged, and we as politicians need to apologize for this debacle.  I do, and my expenses were fine.  I did not receive any calls during the AGs audit, nor was I named in the letter from the AG to the speaker.  But I still would like to apologize on behalf of my profession.  If any of my constituents want to see my expenses, they just have to call, I would be happy to let them be seen.

We need to move forward on this one, retired MLA and Speaker Art Donahue has been tasked with a review of expense and to recommend regulations that would tighten expenses and make them more transparent.  His report in due in July.  There is no need to go back, heck look at the cost the would have to be borne by the AG's office to audit it further, actually I think you'd be startled at the cost of the first audit.

The next chapter in this will be today's press conference by the Premier.  Dexter has been away for the last two weeks on vacation and is listed by Auditor General Jacques Lapointe's letter to the Speaker for the excessive purchase of a digital camera and a very expensive laptop.

Let's see what his spin will be today....