If you need further proof of the Ghiz government’s failed rural development strategy, Minister Ron MacKinley delivered it in spades with his defense of precious rural funds being used to build a Charlottetown parking lot.
It is discouraging to watch MacKinley’s transition from the voice of common sense to the voice of lockstep support for government initiatives, regardless of how failed or stupid they are.
There was a time when Ron MacKinley would criticize the building of dirt mounds in Borden for the waste they are. Now he argues he had nothing to do with the project even though he was minister in charge of the purse strings.
The old Ron MacKinley would never support using money earmarked for rural PEI in Charlottetown, especially from a fund with only a total $27.5 million to spend over six years.
Now MacKinley says it is perfectly reasonable to pay for a city parking lot because rural folks need someplace to park their truck and trailers for harness racing and agriculture fairs.
The minister’s logic, as is too often the case, is completely off the mark. By the same logic MacKinley could use rural development money to pave the QEH parking lot because rural Islanders end up there when we are sick.
What we are sick of is tokenism from the Ghiz administration.
The Rural Development Action Plan is a document not worth the piece of paper it is printed on. And it is sadly not uncommon for the Ghiz government to use the Community Fund for urban projects. There was $104,000 for the Charlottetown Curling Club, $77,000 for the Charlottetown Civic Centre, $35,000 for the Charlottetown Yacht Club, $2 million for a Cornwall Civic Centre.
These may be important, but they are hardly rural priorities.
The Rural Action Plan has failed to create jobs.
It has failed to deal with the serious issue of out-migration.
It has failed to deal with the demographic challenge facing rural PEI.
It has failed to invest in appropriate supports for our primary industries.
About the only thing the Rural Action Plan has created is a new level of bureaucracy for taxpayers to fund.
This is what is so galling about the minister’s defense of funding a Charlottetown parking lot. Rural PEI is dotted with failed initiatives announced with great fanfare that have utterly failed to deliver the promised jobs.
Last week Opacmare finally shuttered its doors in Pooles Corner and with it the promise of 100 jobs that never grew beyond a handful. The massive building it was housed in stands as testament to failed government projects. Just down the road Phyterra sits idle, months behind a schedule that promised to bring high-paying bioscience jobs to rural PEI.
At East Isle Shipyard in Georgetown, what has government done to take advantage of the $30 billion Irving defense contract? What has it done to recruit the necessary workers home?
The Ghiz government has admirably continued to support the Atlantic Beef Plant by covering losses estimated at $3 million. For this it deserves credit.
However, there are rumblings that continued support is not guaranteed because of our province’s massive deficit.
Let’s be clear. Without continued support the beef industry will follow the pork industry into a fatal tailspin. Our provincial economy cannot afford such a blow.
Rural PEI does not need handouts or economic development whose success is measured in photo opportunities for politicians.
Let’s talk about reforming liquor laws to allow rural resorts to compete in an international marketplace.
Let’s talk about free post secondary education. Such a move would achieve two things. First it would create a national buzz about the Island and second it would encourage a whole bunch of 40 and 50 year olds to come home and create their own jobs.
Let’s talk about initiating real discussion with our primary industries about ways to combine assets to increase wealth.
Let’s talk about regional co-operation on issues such as pouring millions of pounds of lobster into the marketplace at the same time and wondering why the price is consistently depressed.
If a parking lot in Charlottetown is a priority pay for it with traditional funding sources. But don’t try to justify it with logic that insults the intelligence of rural PEI.
Ron MacKinley is minister in charge of rural development. But until his good ol’ boy view on governing changes, rural PEI does not stand a chance.

Paul MacNeill is Publisher of Island Press Limited. He can be contacted at paul@peicanada.com