Two Vaughan Conservatives have quit their riding association over a $10 million federal grant given to a health care project spearheaded by MP Julian Fantino’s former fundraisers.

“I’m a Canadian and a taxpayer first,” said Richard Lorello, who ran as a Conservative candidate in the riding in 2008. “It didn’t look right to me. If it was the Liberal party doing this, (the) Conservatives would be jumping up and down.”

Tracey Kent, a five-year member of the association, also resigned.

The federal government announced in March it would give $10 million to the Vaughan Health Campus of Care, a private non-profit group founded in 2007 with the intention of bringing a hospital to the city. Despite its population of 300,000, Vaughan doesn’t have a hospital.

Michael DeGasperis, the hospital group’s chair, and Sam Ciccolini, the director, ran Fantino’s successful byelection fundraising campaign in November 2010.

“It seems to me like we’re rewarding people for helping Mr. Fantino on his campaign,” Lorello said. “It doesn’t look right. It’s inappropriate.”

The grant money itself won’t go toward constructing a hospital, which is a provincial task. Instead, it’s earmarked to help develop a site for health-related facilities to complement a hospital planned for a 35-hectare lot.

Lorello is uncomfortable with $10 million in public funds going to a private company he claims has yet to publicly release a business plan.

He believes Ottawa would have been better off giving the money directly to York Central Hospital, which is in charge of bringing the hospital to Vaughan.

“I had actually requested to meet with Mr. Fantino and I was told to put my concerns in writing,” Lorello said. “I kind of took exception to that because all I was going to do was provide some advice.”

Fantino’s campaign manager said the Vaughan Health Campus has been well-received by the community and will benefit “families, seniors and the region’s economy.”

“The (investment) made to (the Vaughan Health Campus) is to create a life science industry at the campus and for infrastructure,” said Stephen Lecce. “Mr. Fantino is proud the federal government delivered for this critical community-based project for families in Vaughan that is being widely supported by volunteers and donors.”

York Central Hospital welcomed the new funding, saying the complementary health care services would benefit the people of Vaughan.

Tony Genco, then a Liberal candidate who’d just lost to Fantino in the byelection, also praised the initiative. Two weeks later, Genco defected and threw his weight behind his former rival.

When asked about Lorello’s concerns, Mario Ferri, Liberal candidate for Vaughan, said he supports “additional funding for health care in Vaughan.

“I also expect, as do my fellow residents of Vaughan, that funding is provided based on the merits of a project and the results it will bring in health care, not on who is involved,” Ferri said.

Tracey Kent said she quit the riding association because she lost faith in Fantino, who once headed the Toronto police and the OPP, and could no longer support the direction of the party. Her existing concerns were magnified when the federal grant money went to the Vaughan Health Campus, she said.

“We have a bad reputation in Vaughan,” Kent said. “I was hoping (Fantino) was going to be that white knight to fix it. But when I saw some of the activity going on, I knew it was the same old politics again.”

The citizens of Vaughan deserve “absolute transparency” from the Vaughan Health Campus, she said.

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Vaughan Health Campus officials did not respond to requests for interviews Wednesday evening.

Lorello formally resigned from the riding association on April 4 but said he still considers himself a Conservative.

“It’s disappointing,” he said. “But I have to be truthful with myself.”

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