The Doug Ford gravy train is once more pulling into the station. This time, the destination is Ottawa: on April 29, the government announced a new regional office to be headed by Sean Webster, a former unsuccessful Progressive Conservative Party candidate in Kanata–Carleton. The government won’t say how much it’s paying Webster, but one assumes the package will be generous — nice work if you can get it. But it also reeks of old-school patronage, the sort of bloat the PCs ostensibly oppose, and contempt for elected representatives.
The government claims the office will operate “to support better services for the people of Ottawa and the region” in the wake of the province’s “historic new deal” with the city for capital funding, which could reach $543 million. Yet while Ford is casting the office as a “central link” between Queen’s Park, the city, and the federal government, the project is amorphous. Ford also says the regional hub will permit locals to “complain and raise issues” as Colin D’Mello and Isaac Callan put it, but as the office opens, it’s not even clear whether it will be open to the public.
One may think that, with a caucus of 78 members, Ford would be able to find an MPP or two who could carry out the work of representing their city or region and connecting them to the government. One may think the government could find the phone numbers or email addresses of federal members of Parliament, too, and get in touch to coordinate business that cuts across orders of government.
The government’s newsroom release says the office “will help ensure that the needs of Ottawa residents, including workers, families, business owners and more, are understood and met at the provincial level.” What a stunning rebuke of Ford’s commitment to Parliament and to elected representatives. Ford has more than one Ottawa-area MPP in his caucus ranks, including one who refused to attend the regional office launch because it was “not a great idea.” That’s the take from Lisa Macleod, who represents Nepean and who wrote to the premier’s office to complain.
The launch of the office calls into question Ford’s commitment to relying on the capacity of local representatives to do their jobs. Does Ford not trust his own caucus members to represent their constituents? Their city? Their region? Does he not trust his own government’s capacity to engage within and across parties with elected representatives to hear complaints and deliver the goods for the people his ministry is meant to serve? The answer to each question is plainly not. That, in and of itself, is an awful scandal: Ford governs as if the premier’s office always knows best and as if MPPs are, at best, trained seals who exist to deliver seats to support the government and toe its line.
The idea of a regional office isn’t in and of itself a bad one. Government is complicated, especially across three orders — local, provincial, and federal. Coordinating is good. But directing the creation of an office from the top down, cutting out MPPs, and staffing the thing with a patronage appointment of a failed candidate reeks of the gravy-train politics Ford professes to hate.
Rather than establish a regional office, Ford should coordinate with local MPPs, MPs, and city councillors across parties, as necessary, along with public servants. Ottawa doesn’t need a lobbying office that acts as a de facto arm of the premier’s office. It needs a team of elected representatives and civil servants — who are perfectly well-equipped for this work — to do their jobs.
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