Ignatieff Says Empty Field Where Stimulus Money To Be Spent Shows Tory Inaction

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff used an empty field in southern Ontario on Thursday to illustrate why his party can no longer support the Conservative minority government.

Ignatieff stood in front of an undeveloped infrastructure project in Burlington, west of Toronto, to release research that suggests only 12 per cent of $4 billion set aside for immediate job-creating projects has actually flowed.

That’s a far cry from the Harper government’s claim that 80 per cent of its economic stimulus plan is being implemented.

“It’s one of the important reasons why our party is unable to continue supporting this government,” Ignatieff said.

“The reason is right here in this field, this kind of inaction, this kind of game playing.”

The Conservatives said the project, a park, has not yet been built because the city asked that construction begin next spring.

The Harper government also dispatched its transport and infrastructure minister to respond to the Liberal research.

John Baird was to provide an update on the stimulus plan across town at the Burlington Transit operations centre at noon.

The Liberal research also concluded that the money has gone disproportionately to Conservative ridings.

The average Conservative riding got 13 times as much money as the average opposition riding in British Columbia, 2.7 times as much in Quebec. In Ontario, Conservative ridings got 11 per cent more than opposition ridings.

“Canadians don’t want political games played with infrastructure money,” Ignatieff said.

“They want it to benefit all Canadians, not just the areas that voted Conservative.”