Competitive granting-big winners and big losers.

I must admit that I was having a difficult time in selecting just what subject I might write about for this issue of Northern Ontario Business. Then it happened; dropping right in front of me was the media release promoting the success of the just announced Rural Infrastructure Investment Initiative (RIII).

For those of you who are not aware, the RIII is/was a $70 million, one-time funding program announced in late 2006, which doubled to $140 million with the announcement of the 2007 Provincial Budget. The program was designed to assist small and rural communities in addressing their massive infrastructure deficits.

As I read thoroughly this latest piece of apparent "good news" and the accompanying list of successful communities, I pondered just why our community and many of our neighbours had been unsuccessful. This all may sound like "sour grapes" but certainly the facts speak for themselves.

First, only the good news was delivered. Communities not receiving money were provided with a simple letter of refusal that lacked even the courtesy to inform them of just why they had been unsuccessful.

Second, many if not all of the funds announced provided 100% funding for the subject projects. I have to ask if distributing the same amount of funding to more communities at a rate of say 50% would not have been more effective.

Third, the province has effectively addressed the subject projects in the successful communities, while increasing the infrastructure deficit in the unsuccessful communities.

I do have to give credit where credit is due. This government has attempted to address many of the issues that were raised by communities in the rural and northern areas. Much of cabinet speaks passionately about these same areas and there appears to be great support to revitalize areas that were mismanaged through the mid-1990s. I do, however, have to question; just who is advising the politicians?

The results of this RIII program are no different than the collective results of the three-round COMRIF program. Community has been set against community resulting in an unequal distribution of funding dollars. This only results in "better times" for some and even "worse times" for others--making a bad situation even worse. In this "wacky world" of "competitive granting" there are big winners and big losers. Consider this; in Northern Ontario, the communities of Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Marathon, Moosonee, Oliver-Paipoonge and White River were collectively granted $16,337,978, while scores of communities in the North, including Dubreuilville and Wawa received nothing! I have to ask; are the needs of the successful communities that much more than that of the unsuccessful communities? On what basis were these decisions made? Can answers be provided that are not filled with some cleverly concocted rhetoric? I suspect that none of the fore mentioned questions will ever be answered.

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The type of short-sighted decision making that appears to have been made in conjunction with the RIII program reminds me of "old saying"; "Nero fiddled while Rome burned," this of course refers to the apparent actions of the infamous Roman Emperor, while his city Rome burned to the ground in July 64 A.D. Although Northern Ontario is not burning, the "madness" of mismanagement continues.

Wawa's Chris Wray is the CAO of the Township of Michipicoten.