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Pa ge 6 T hu rs da y, Ju ne 4 , 2 01 5 - T he IF P - H al to n H ill s - w w w .th ei fp .c a The Independent & Free Press is published Thursday and is one of several Metroland Media Group Ltd. community newspapers. Editorial and advertising content of The Independent & Free Press is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The Independent & Free Press is a member of the Ontario Press Coun- cil, which is an independent ethical organization established to deal with editorial concerns. For additional information or to file a complaint, contact info@ontpress.com or call 416-340-1981. The Independent & Free Press Partnership paid off for farmers Letters to the editor 905-873-0301 Publisher: Dana Robbins General manager: Steve Foreman (sforeman@theifp.ca) Retail advertising manager: Cindi Campbell (ccampbell@theifp.ca) Managing editor: Chris Vernon (cvernon@metroland.com) Distribution manager: Nancy Geissler (ngeissler@theifp.ca) Classifieds/Real Estate Kristie Pells (realestate@theifp.ca) Classified Call Centre 1-855-415-8237 classified@theifp.ca Accounting 1-866-773-6575 Editorial Cynthia Gamble: News editor (cgamble@theifp.ca) Lisa Tallyn: Staff writer (ltallyn@theifp.ca) Eamonn Maher: Staff writer/sports (emaher@theifp.ca) Get the latest headlines delivered to your inbox by signing up for our twice weekly electronic newsletter. Go to www.theifp.ca and click on 'Newsletter sign-up' at the bottom of the homepage. Chong off on the numbers The newly unveiled $25-million dairy and livestock research facility near Elora appears to be another example of the power of public-private partnerships to create something dynamic. Following an open house of the sprawling, state- of-the-art centre on Thursday, representatives of the funding stakeholders, whose investment spurred the facility, rightly touted its promise. They also praised the collaboration that saw it come about. As they asserted, this new centre positions local researchers, domestic farmers and industry to have terrific advantages in developing and sustaining innovations that should have enormous positive applications for industry stakeholders and consum- ers in a competitive international space. No doubt, this case will also give hope to backers of other local causes seeking to advance ambitious pro- posed developments and ventures through public- private partnerships (or P3s). After all, this formula resulted in a $25-million investment that had no shortage of proud and boast- ful funding parents recently -- and a wide commu- nity of excited agri-food stakeholders on hand as well. This collaboration, however, included the critical piece that many P3-formula wannabes lack. It had big private backing interest and funding from this sector available. In this instance, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario made a multimillion-dollar contribution. In commenting on what the private and public money delivered in Elora, Stewart Cressman, chair of the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario, stated: "We are the envy of other jurisdictions with our part- nerships." He said that was because the collaborative funding modernized key agri-food research infrastructure and that will help "accelerate the discovery and adop- tion of innovations that enhance and sustain Ontario's agri-food sector and fuel a productive economy." The envy he spoke of, however, could just as easily have applied to the leaders of groups looking to fund similarly ambitious projects without a ready industry partner or two. We have reached a time where Ottawa and Queen's Park have demonstrated more of a willingness to open their chequebooks for investments in infra- structure when there is committed private money on the table, too. As the dairy centre story suggests, it has become tricky to milk public purses alone to do such projects. MP Michael Chong's most recent Con- servative newsletter, paid for by taxpay- ers, featured the 2015 budget bill, which has not yet been passed by Parliament. He suggests the bill is a "significant achieve- ment." Unfortunately, Mr. Chong makes mis- statements and omits some important in- formation. An example: Over the past nine years Mr. Chong's government has added $157 billion to the national debt. It now stands at $17,000 for every woman, man and child. In 2009 Conservatives incurred the largest yearly deficit in Canadian history -- $55 billion. So how did the Conservatives balance this particular budget bill just in time for the election? The bill is predicated on 2 per cent annual growth in the economy. Canada, however, showed negative 0.6 per cent growth in the first three months of 2015. Mr. Harper and Mr. Chong have elimi- nated 37,000 public service jobs. Those include front line service positions at the OPINION Canadian Food Inspection Agency (20 per cent cut), the Department of Veteran Af- fairs (25 per cent cut), Service Canada (in- cluding EI services), Transportation Safety and the Coast Guard. We can expect food safety risks and less service. The bill includes a reduction of $900 million in public service benefits (vacation pay cuts) which have not yet been "negoti- ated" with CUPE. Expect service interrup- tions if CUPE strikes. The Conservatives will reduce federal health care spending by $36 billion over 10 years. This, despite growing health care needs especially for ageing Canadians. Expect a looming health care crisis. Mr. Chong's government will advertise spending on transit ($750 million) and de- fence ($12 billion), but these dollars won't be available until two years. Mr. Harper has increased tariffs (ie. taxes) on more that 1,290 imported product categories -- everything from child car seats to coffee makers to carpets. An additional $330 mil- lion in taxes which will mostly impact low and middle income families. Mr. Chong's government will keep Em- ployment Insurance premiums higher than is necessary. They are counting on this back door tax on workers to generate an extra $5.5 billion annually. And yet all these cuts and maneuvers were still not enough. To barely make it across the balanced budget line, Mr. Chong's government sold off our $1 bil- lion of General Motors shares -- early and below projected value. In addition, the federal contingency disaster fund was re- duced from $3 billion to $1 billion per year. Financial experts have used terms such as "playing with the numbers" and "financial sleight of hand" to describe these moves. Of course the budget bill mentions nothing about the environment and car- bon emissions, youth un and under- em- ployment, or the loss of manufacturing jobs and car plant closures here in Ontario. Now for the secret about Conserva- tive spending. Mr. Harper and Mr Chong have lent out $211 billion through what is called "non-budgetary spending". This is money to people and companies which does not appear in the budget bill and is not reviewed by Parliament. Previous gov- ernments have done some of this, but Mr. Harper and Mr. Chong have increased the amount by 400 per cent in order to create the impression of sound financial man- agement. Peter van Vloten