Finally the children have stopped squabbling over how many marbles should be in the sandbox. Of course, we refer to the current spat between the city (led by Mayor Chiarelli) and the province (notably, Ministers Baird and Sterling). To his credit, Ottawa's newest Minister, Brian Coburn, has refused to engage in partisan potshots.

And into this truce - or should we say the absence pointless photo-ops - will walk Claude Bennett. Rumour has it Mr. Bennett is back in town and will probably speak out in the next day or two. But don't expect him to stick around and comment on every city council decision made over the next year. He has too much class for that.

His political career is one of clear lines. When he has held elected office or a public appointment positions, he's been in the spotlight and carried out his respective tasks. But when the job is done, he goes back to being a private citizen and leaves the governing for those empowered and elected to do so.

No doubt, it will be good to hear Mr. Bennett's take on the agreement/ understanding he had with the province. But more importantly, we need to put some facts on the table that have been conveniently ignored.

Fact #1: As mentioned last week, Queen's Park acted in a cowardly manner by putting out its 50% transition funding announcement two weeks ago on the eve of a major Cabinet shuffle. It was amateur, but the ensuing response is unjustified.

Fact #2: We do not have a $189 million transition bill. City council has been left with some 400 plus recommendations and if all of them are implemented over the next three years, then transition could cost $189 million. There's no bill waiting to be paid, just an estimate (for the most part) of potential costs.

Fact #3: Mayor Chiarelli has vowed to scrutinize all of the transition board's recommendations. Along with councilors Munter and Deans, the mayor has never missed an opportunity to take gratuitous swipes at the board's work. But it is Mr. Chiarelli and his council who can either accept or reject the transition board's varied directives. The power to control the costs of transition rests with council.

Fact #4: The transition funding spat did not create a financial crisis for Ottawa. Yes, Ottawa does face severe cost pressures to fund services and manage growth. But these pressures already existed. Documentation exists pointing to shortfalls from the old regional development charges as well as infrastructure deficiencies as a result of decisions taken by the previous regional and city councils. The transition funding spat potentially compounds this problem, but it did not create it.

Fact #5: Ottawa is not Toronto. All this whining about Toronto got this and Toronto got that is utter nonsense. Toronto accounts for almost 50% of Ontario's Gross Domestic Product and almost 28% of Canada's GDP. We're talking about a world stature city, with a metropolitan catchment area of 5 to 6 million people. While Ottawa should strive to carve out a niche for itself on the world stage, we should give up this me-too, me-too comparison with Hogtown.

Yes, the city of Toronto has received special attention for its Olympic bid, waterfront redevelopment and public transit money, but the last time I checked, it drives a significant portion of the Canadian economy (see numbers above). So on this account, Ministers Sterling and Baird have a point, on a city-to-city per capita comparison, we've done well.

Fact #6: This partisan spat between a Liberal mayor (whatever happened to Bob the consensus builder from the last campaign?) and the Conservative government is more about what a colleague calls the "politics of ribbon cutting." More money for Ottawa means local politicians get to cut the ribbon. Less money means provincial cabinet ministers do more photo-ops. Both sides should check the party membership cards at the door figure out ways to share political credit for infrastructure investments that will take place in our community.

Fact #7: It was intriguing to see Nepean-Carleton Liberal MP, David Pratt, chime into this debate. To his credit, Mr. Pratt does speak eloquently on various issues, but not on this file. He noted that the province's funding decision could delay or derail local infrastructure projects.

Before slamming the Ontario government, he may wish to ask ministers Paul Martin (Finance) or David Collennette (Transport) why the federal Liberals continue to collect $5 billion in gas taxes each year but return a mere 4.1%, or $194 million, back to road construction and highway development.

These are just some of the facts that have been ignored in this debate. But ignoring them won't them disappear.