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Martin names Harcourt to cities panel

S

samusam

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from www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/1...ties031212

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Paul Martin has asked former British Columbia premier Mike Harcourt to head an advisory committee that will draft a "New Deal" for cities.


INDEPTH: Chase the bouncing Loonie: Cities vie for a new deal

Martin has long signalled that municipal governments can expect more sympathetic treatment under his regime, as well as more money for their groaning infrastructure.

Harcourt, who was the NDP premier of B.C. from 1991 to 1996, has recently been chairing the International Centre for Sustainable Cities, associated with the University of British Columbia.

He has been recovering from serious spinal cord injuries after falling off the cliff-side deck of his cottage last November. Doctors at first thought he would not walk again without aids, but his progress has been better than expected.

Martin has also set up a secretariat within the Privy Council Office to help implement the government's new approach to cities. It will be headed by Yazmine Laroche, formerly an assistant deputy minister in the Canadian Heritage department.



Written by CBC News Online staff
 
I hate to be macabre, but was that deck the one that he had illegally built? Oh wait, that was his successor. Harcourt's scandal was the Bingogate or whatever. A very strange choice to lead an urban panel. Why not Crombie or Jane Jacobs or something? What about one of the many good members of Vancouver's city government?
 
Harcourt, I believe, came up from the ranks of Vancouver's municipal politics. Wasn't he mayor at some point (I don't know). Vancouver will have some interesting things to say on the New Deal for Cities. After all, the Greater Vancouver Regional District can be credited for getting at least some necessary transit projects done while Toronto stalled out. The GVRD has been touted as a model for a GTA municipal government before.

...James
 

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