Lambton-Kent-Middlesex PC MPP Monte McNaughton reacted strongly when news broke that Kathleen Wynne’s Ontario government continues to refuse to disclose the amount of Rural Economic Development (RED) Program funding that has instead been given to GTA companies in Toronto, Markham and Woodbridge.
“This fund is supposed to help Ontario’s rural communities not GTA and Toronto companies. Rural communities like those in Lambton-Kent-Middlesex deserve to know how much of this fund that was supposed to help us has instead been given to businesses in the Greater Toronto Area,” stated McNaughton. “The Premier likes to tell us that she wants her government to be more open. So why is she refusing to tell us how much she gave these companies?”
On September 13, 2013 Kathleen Wynne, Premier and Minister of Agriculture and Food, announced a Rural Economic Development (RED) Program grant would be given to a network of four companies located in Woodbridge, Toronto and Markham. The amount of the grant was not included in the announcement and the Premier did not disclose it when questioned in the Legislature by opposition MPP Ernie Hardeman.
“The Rural Economic Development program is one of the few programs that is specifically designed to help strengthen and grow our rural communities,” said McNaughton. “It’s wrong to roll money out to Toronto based businesses at the expense of our own local, rural businesses.”
The Rural Economic Development (RED) Program guidelines state: “For the purposes of the RED Program “rural” encompasses all of Ontario with the exception of Greater Toronto Area and eight large urban areas.”
“I join my colleagues in asking the Premier a simple question, explain to the people of Lambton-
Kent-Middlesex and all of rural Ontario how much of the money that was set aside for their communities was wrongly diverted to Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area,” said McNaughton.
