Michael Ignatieff stopped short of saying he’d restore FedNor to its former standalone status, complete with a minister of state, but the federal Liberal leader did say it would get much more attention under a Liberal government.
Ignatieff is on a cross-country Open Mike tour trying to connect with every day Canadians to get a feel for the issues that are troubling them. On Thursday, during a stop at Confederation College, he said it’s important to arrest the decline of the economic development agency, something the Stephen Harper-led government has been doing since they took power, he said.
"My view of the Conservatives is they don’t like any of these regional economic development agencies very much. They don’t believe in it. They wouldn’t be in it at all, if they weren’t in the midst of the worst recession since the Second World War," Ignatieff said.
The Tories, he continued, don’t believe the government has a role to play helping set – and pay for – infrastructure deficiencies that leverage economic development.
"They think the only thing you need to do is cut taxes and walk away," Ignatieff said. "We just don’t and have never believed that, and it’s one of the reasons why the Conservative party does not have support up here."
Ignatieff promised he would provide more resources and a ministerial mandate to FedNor, which unlike other regional agencies such as the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, Western Economic Diversification Canada, Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions and the Southern Ontario Development Agency, is not a standalone organization.
The country’s other three economic development agencies got $14 million more apiece in the latest federal budget, while FedNor’s budget remained stagnant.
Former MP Ken Boshcoff said merging FedNor into Industry Canada’s portfolio has meant lengthy delays as proposals sat on the desk of Industry Minister Tony Clement awaiting approval.
"Whether it’s going forward or not, people are stymied for months and months and months," Boshcoff said. "Then they find out it’s a no-go from the feds and then they really have some problems with their community. They could go on to something else as opposed to holding their breath that long. The decline of FedNor from a ministerial status to basically just another department really has affected us."
However, Ignatieff was blunt when asked about infrastructure spending in the North.
The money just isn’t there, he said, pointing to a $56-billion budget deficit and a national debt that’s hit $545 billion and growing daily.
"I have to tell you directly that I don’t see a great new huge infrastructure investment in a new Liberal government," he said. "I want to be direct and clear about that. We’ve got a real problem and we’ve got to work up to it. There just isn’t enough to go around."
That could put a damper on the city’s plan to lobby the two senior levels of government for money to pay for a proposed $60-million multiplex facility.
Ignatieff, who fielded questions about language, poverty, tuition mining and which prime minister he patterns his leadership style after at the town-hall style event, acknowledged the federal government’s role in dealing with First Nations issues, particularly the situation in Fort Hope, where murders, arsons and animal mutilations have forced Chief Lewis Nate to declare a state of emergency.
The 63-year-old said the first step is to have a discussion with local leadership to better understand the problem before action is taken.
"I think every Canadian is just distressed when a community is overrun by criminal violence, by gangs, by drugs, by abuse. We’ve got to get a handle on it and we’ve got to give them every help we can. But I think the first thing is to simply sit down with the leadership, say what’s the problem and how do we go forward.
"You can’t draft a strategy that’s going to fix this from Ottawa. You’ve got to do it from the community itself."
Ignatieff’s tour will take him to Dryden on Friday.
