JUNKETS OR PUBLIC BUSINESS?

Frankly I'm having a problem with this. Monday's Waterloo Region Record carrys this story "Halloran tops mayors in air miles". Allegedly our local mayors from Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge are travelling overseas including China to help spur business and economic development for their cities. Really? So in essence they are taking turns telling potential overseas customers and investers that hey their waterloo region neighbour isn't as good a place to buy from or invest in as they are? Whatever happened to the British North America Act and division of powers? The feds are involved with peace, order and good government while the provinces take care of local matters. Meanwhile municipalities are at the bottom of the barrel and basically are at the mercy of the two higher tiers. Economic development is both a provincial and federal responsibility. If due to provincial/federal efforts, someone comes knocking I would certainly expect municipalities to put out the welcome mat. That is a whole lot different than travelling at local taxpayers expense half way around the world and duplicating the efforts of our higher tiers of government. Local taxpayers are already paying for the feds and province to make these efforts. Are they falling down on the job? If so the municipalities should advise them and the public of these failures not duplicate efforts and spend even more taxpayers money thank you very much.