| Budgets must consider both sides |
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| Local Content - Editorial |
| Written by production |
| Friday, 12 March 2010 16:25 |
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Many people have expressed their opinions on the recently-announced federal budget. To be certain, no one likes the idea Canada is digging itself deeper and deeper into debt. By tacking on another $50 billion of debt this year, Canada’s total debt load is going to settle out in the $600-billion range — not a place anyone wants to be. In this case, however, the federal Conservatives have simply accomplished what it promised. Stimulus funding will continue in 2010, and will wind down thereafter. The gamble is the economy will have picked up to near-normal levels by 2010, and cuts in government spending will not impact the bottom line of many of the industries the feds are currently helping prop up. It is, like anything in life, a gamble. In this case, however, it is prudent to continue to spend on infrastructure projects. Many of these projects are being done well below costs of a few years ago, when construction companies were turning down jobs and bouncing from one task to another. Take Tuesday’s M.D. of Taber meeting for example, when council accepted a tender of just under $600,000 for a bridge near Enchant. The work had original engineering estimates coming in at around $1-$1.2 million. None of the eight bids the M.D. received even broke the $860,000 mark. If the original high-end estimate came to fruition, it means the M.D. has saved more than 50 cents on the dollar for the project. The fact eight bids were received is in itself pretty amazing, something town council relayed, noting when times were supercharged with activity they would be lucky to get two. As Albertans have witnessed first hand, there are two kinds of government deficits — financial ones and infrastructure ones. Eliminating a debt is all well and good but if the end result is a staggering infrastructure deficit, your province still has a massive amount of work to do. Getting infrastructure work done now when it is the cheapest time to do so is wise, although at some point, we will also have to address the financial burden Canadians now find themselves buried under. Simply put, only solid planning and long-term goals will make this happen. Let’s hope the two lead federal parties can put their squabbling aside for more than five minutes to work together and figure out a plan. |
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