NDP Leader Howard Hampton today grilled Michael Gravelle, Minister of Northern Development and Mines and Chair of the Northern Ontario Heritage Board Corporation (NOHFC), on the pattern of NOHFC funding announcements before and since the last provincial election.

During Question Period, Hampton asked Gravelle: “Why has the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation announced less funding in the eight months since the election, than it announced in the four days prior to the last election being called?”

In the eight months before the last election call, more than $105-million was announced in a dizzying flurry of NOHFC press releases. In the last four days prior to the election call, more than $31-million was announced. By sharp contrast, in the eight months since the October 10 election, NOHFC announcements total less than $29-million.

“The McGuinty government has sent out numerous press releases boasting about an increase in funding to the NOHFC. But at the current rate of money flowing to Northerners from the NOHFC, the government will bank $25-million that should have been spent this year to assist the north,” Hampton said.

“Why is this Minister continuing the unseemly tradition of banking the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund so that the McGuinty government can hold more photo ops just before the next election?” he asked.