FedNor jobs dropped by 30% under Conservatives, NDP MP says

The New DemocratMP for Timmins-James Bay continues to pick away at government statistics that show the former Conservative government undermined the regional development agency known asFedNor.

Charlie Angus has previously outlined how millions have been cut from FedNor's budget over the past six years.

The latest information concerns the number of full-time jobs.

The number of positionsdropped from 120 to 83 over the past six years, Angus said.

It's not possible to escape a noticeable decline in activity on certain projects, he said,citing stalled broadband proposals.

"You can't run a department as diversified as FedNor with a 30 per cent cut over six years and not have it affect your programming," he said.

Pulling back?

Angus also noted the cultural food fair, theFoireGourmand in Temiskaming, experienced a significantdrop in funding overthe six years.

"I thought maybe it was just a difference of priorities, but when you see the major cuts they've taken over the last number of years, you realize that the priorities are that they're having to pull back from areas they traditionally were engaged in."

As for the source of the information, Angus said it'suntainted.

"We can use various parliamentary sources to get government departments to actually produce numbers, so we're not dealing here with a minister or party spin," he said.

"We actually get the documents from the department."

The future of FedNor remains to be seen, said Angus, who has lobbied Science and Innovation Minister, Navdeep Bains, to restore funding to the economic development agency.