Poking holes in PC crusades

And a scoop on Crombie's cash

ABOVE THE FOLD

WHOSE FUNDING IS IT ANYWAY? — DOUG FORD has been railing against the feds — and the feds are pushing back.

About that “jurisdictional creep”: A day after the Premier chided Ottawa for doling out infrastructure cash directly to municipalities and threatened to bring in a law that would give the province final word on how that cash is spent, federal Housing Minister SEAN FRASER isn’t deterred.

“I never heard these objections before it was uttered in a news conference,” Fraser told reporters. “There is yet to be a single community to put their hand up and say ‘I don’t want you to put federal money on the table to incentivize changes in my city.” So, he’s plowing ahead.

Ford’s call was co-signed by his fellow first ministers at the Council of the Federation meeting in Halifax, where the Premiers agreed to explore the possibility of “legislative frameworks” a la Quebec, which require a provincial thumbs-up before municipalities can sign funding agreements with the feds, like…