Year-round potential is worthy of support

It’s flagrant pork-barrelling, A wasteful slushfund, NZ First’s re-election insurance policy. The barbs continue to be fired at the biggest bauble Winston Peters extracted from Labour in the coalition negotiations, the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF).

With Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones lustily at the helm, the self-styled ‘‘First Chief of the Provinces’’ is revelling in his role, unleashing his trademark ebullience and bombast for the cause.

With a billion dollars at his disposal to dispense to the regions annually, National is taunting Jones that the PGF only created 54 jobs in its first year. The PGF’s investment head, Robert Pigou, has hit back, claiming that at least 10,000 jobs are likely to be generated from the $626 million in project funding announced throughout last year.

Pigou also points out that much of the signalled funding hasn’t been released. ‘‘Funding is announced in principle, after which contracts are negotiated and applicants work to secure their cofunding requirements. This may take up to six months, before the project receives any funding from the PGF.’’

As of Christmas, there had been 772 expressions of interest and formal funding applications to the PGF, with funding approved for 111 projects.

‘‘For many projects this means funding feasibility and business cases to test assumptions and to ensure these projects are primed for further funding,’’ adds Pigou.

With just $626m allocated in the first year, Jones is going to have quite the war chest of financial confetti to fling about in election year.

Yes, the PGF reeks of corporate welfare and picking winners. But is it really any different to the Major Events Fund, tax breaks for the film industry or the gusher of grants for festivals and the arts from local and central government?

Politicians of all stripes love picking winners with your money.

From a South Island perspective, the West Coast has been the biggest benefactor of the PGF to date, with $140 million of funding confirmed to support a range of economic development projects, including garnet mining and upgrading the TranzAlpine with luxury product offerings, to attract the premium high-value tourist on the tracks and beyond.

From a parochial perspective, Canterbury received very little PGF love in its first year, but that all changed on Thursday with Jones rocking into Methven to play sugar-daddy to the Opuke Thermal Pools and Spa development.

The pools proposal has been floated for quite some years, but couldn’t secure sufficient private investor funding to get it off the ground. The PGF will loan $7.5 million to support the development of the complex, which certainly has the potential to help magnetise Methven’s credentials as a yearround tourism honey-pot. Ski in winter, hike and cycle in summer, and enjoy a restorative soak after your day’s adventures.

With so many glorious high-country trails on its doorstep, including the lure of Mt Sunday, aka Edoras, harnessing Methven’s year-round potential as a visitor base is worthy of support. Backdropped by the Southern Alps, the solarpowered Opuke Thermal Pools is exactly the kind of anchor attraction the township has been sorely lacking.

Critics might scoff, but it never ceases to amaze me how artfully-designed therapeutic hot pools act like tourist tractor-beams. Hanmer Springs is the gold standard experience, a runaway success story that underpins the town’s economic vitality -and a multi-million dollar earner for the Hurunui District Council.

Tekapo Springs is also a class act, while other South Island pool and spa complexes at Franz Josef and Maruia Springs continue to woo domestic and global tourists.

I note the PGF has also committed to giving a $3 million loan to the development of a premium pool and spa complex at Punakaiki.

The ever-expanding wellness sector of the tourism industry is a very lucrative player.

Methven’s proposed complex also chimes nicely with Tourism New Zealand’s strategic focus on ‘‘regional dispersal’’, whereby international visitors are enticed to second-tier, under-utilised and under-the-radar destinations.

Methven is a textbook case, pumping during the peak ski season, but deserted in summer. Yearround visitor sustainability is the over-arching mission, to bolster employment security and community prosperity.

The PGF’s helping hand for Methven is to be welcomed.

Politicians of all stripes love picking winners with your money.