Ed Holder provided a statement Wednesday night to CBC's As It Happens on the federal government's lack of action on the Electro-Motive file.

I'm confused by our MP's maintaining that Electro-Motive is not part of a federally regulated industry, and therefore that the federal government has no authority to get involved in this issue, one of such importance to our local economy.

Does he really mean that the federal government of Stephen Harper -- which turned his March 19, 2008, delivery of a cheque for this company into a media event involving the prime minister posing for cameras on the shop floor -- can pass out several millions of Canadians' tax dollars and deny any responsibility for what happens after? Is MP Holder shrugging his shoulders, reckoning that the barn door is already open and the thoroughbred escaped?

Come on, Ed. You can do better than that. Your government ought to do better than that for the workers of Electro-Motive and the citizens of London.

Betsy Odegaard, member of the London West NDP
As published in The London Free Press on Jan. 7, 2012.