Pressure from Progressive Conservative candidate leads to funding announcement
ANTIGONISH, NS - Antigonish Progressive Conservative candidate Darren Thompson says today’s announcement of $1.5 million in funding for the People’s Place Library came as no surprise.
“The government was under intense pressure to deliver on this project,” said Thompson. “They were hearing about it everywhere - in the newspapers, on the radio, in the House of Assembly. This is welcome news, but a desperate move by the NDP government.”
The proposal already had $3.2 million in committed funding from the federal government, the County of Antigonish and the Town of Antigonish. Until Friday’s announcement, the NDP government had repeatedly refused to support the library.
The NDP’s Minister of Economic and Rural Development had indicated in an August 24th letter to the Chief Librarian that funding for the library would not be forthcoming.
When the Progressive Conservative caucus put forth a motion in the House of Assembly last week calling upon the NDP government to fund the library project, the NDP members of the legislature refused to support it.
PC Party leader Karen Casey says the timing of the announcement is questionable and wonders what other community will lose a project because of the minister's promise to commit funds from another department..
"After the Minister of Economic and Rural Development initially said no to this project, it appears he is committed to funding it by taking resources from another department," said Casey. "As we said in the House of Assembly, the NDP should have had the foresight to address this matter up front instead of rushing it through at the eleventh hour."
Thompson says the government’s reversal is the result of efforts by the community and opposition members to force the government to act, but smacks of opportunism during an election campaign. "They are clearly concerned about their prospects in this constituency because of their failure to follow through on the correctional facility, their cuts to arena funding and drastic cuts to the home heating rebate program."
