National Post stirring the pot. She literally said the new spending was fantastic. They buried that several paras in.
Yes, it's great.
No, it's not enough.
But also, we don't have the ability to spend more in the short term anyway. So....
Canada moves to 2% GDP end of FY25/26 - PMMC
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National Post stirring the pot. She literally said the new spending was fantastic. They buried that several paras in.
Yes, it's great.
No, it's not enough.
But also, we don't have the ability to spend more in the short term anyway. So....
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It can. If needs must and you are the one stuck with fixing the problem.
....
The pipe most recently ruptured in December, flooding streets in the northwest and triggering Stage 4 water restrictions citywide. The break occurred a few days before an independent review panel released its report on the water main, which painted a damning picture of how the city governed and managed its water utility assets over the past 20 years.
The 86-page report detailed what its author, retired ATCO executive Siegfried Kiefer, called “systemic gaps” in Calgary’s water utility management throughout the past two decades.
“The panel has traced these gaps to external pressures, risk asset integrity processes, ineffective management and a lack of effective governance oversight,” the report read.
“The city’s water utility processes were not sufficiently robust to manage a complex system of this nature, especially with challenging external pressures.”
.....
Calgary's crumbling feeder main has more wire snaps, repairs to be done during construction of second line
An exit ramp along 16th Avenue N.W. westbound to Sarcee Trail has been closed as the city begins new repairs
calgaryherald.com
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Repair the water mains or save the planet? Where best to spend taxes?
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My point was that someone often needs to do the unsexy, because the people who should have done it years ago spent the time/money on shiny things to get elected/be popular.It can. If needs must and you are the one stuck with fixing the problem.
....
The pipe most recently ruptured in December, flooding streets in the northwest and triggering Stage 4 water restrictions citywide. The break occurred a few days before an independent review panel released its report on the water main, which painted a damning picture of how the city governed and managed its water utility assets over the past 20 years.
The 86-page report detailed what its author, retired ATCO executive Siegfried Kiefer, called “systemic gaps” in Calgary’s water utility management throughout the past two decades.
“The panel has traced these gaps to external pressures, risk asset integrity processes, ineffective management and a lack of effective governance oversight,” the report read.
“The city’s water utility processes were not sufficiently robust to manage a complex system of this nature, especially with challenging external pressures.”
.....
Calgary's crumbling feeder main has more wire snaps, repairs to be done during construction of second line
An exit ramp along 16th Avenue N.W. westbound to Sarcee Trail has been closed as the city begins new repairs
.....
Repair the water mains or save the planet? Where best to spend taxes?
Whether it's not repairing water mains, or buying new toys to distract from the crumbling and unmaintained ones we already have. The tendency is to buy new things rather than fix the old stuff we bought years ago.
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And, on top of that, the new sexy things being bought are often of less quality and of less overall longevity that the issues tend to come more often and more severe as time goes on.
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Absolutely.
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Governments fail to focus on essentials. Film at 11.
Bad news is that "starve the beast" conservativism appears to have failed; "add programs until we have to raise taxes" progressivism has won.
Bad news is that "starve the beast" conservativism appears to have failed; "add programs until we have to raise taxes" progressivism has won.
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I take comfort in all those layer cake ancient cities buried under desert sands. Eventually renewal happens.
I get the distinct impression that about 5 HRM councilors only got elected to deliver bike lanes in an eighteenth Century City.
It's called the Suburban Growth ponzi scheme. Suburban growth almost never pays enough in taxes to fund full replacement cost over the lifetime of said infrastructure. So cities respond by sprawling further to get those sweet development charges that can keep the ponzi going.
No politician is ever going to change this. Why would they? If that councillor ran on a platform that said "I will not expand a thing, but instead will raise taxes to make sure infrastructure is at 100% serviceability", most of your neighbours (and maybe even you) would call him all kinds of nasty names, label him fiscally irresponsible and tar and feather him out of office. Most people want the lie. And will vote for it.
This isn't just a local phenomenon. Happens at every level. It's why we have huge federal and provincial deficits too.
Hell, there's evidence it's generational too. There's evidence that Boomers largely voted for fiscal conservatism when it benefited them as a cohort (didn't want higher taxes during peak working years) and have now rejected austerity because they want all that healthcare spending and social supports.
Halifax Tar
Army.ca Legend
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Halifax Tar
Army.ca Legend
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That's us. We need to look in the mirror and demand the unsexy get done.
But we have an aloof and simple people who will get distracted with bike lanes and hockey games.
I have little faith much will change.
KevinB
Army.ca Relic
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That is most of the West. We have been caught up in an immediate gratification circle, and fail to look beyond our noses.
The Colosseum was designed to entertain and distract the masses...
Maybe our grandkids will learn.
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Different pipes, different departments, different schedules, different budgets....and different crises.
Incompetence carries a lot of weight that it doesn't deserve.
Circumstances are always changing.
The biggest issue, IMO, is the lack of adequate contingency funding. If every penny has to be justified then nobody will leave the necessary billions in a contingency fund, untouched.
Cash is king.
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Another myth, depending on where political boundaries are drawn and how people choose to run their local governments. Rather than cities subsidizing suburbs, in a few cases American major cities have been trying to amalgamate suburb cities into larger metro areas in order to get at the suburban tax base and repurpose part of it to deal with their "inner city" problems.
"We can easily see the problem with this common argument based on the author’s own words, as suburbs are “propped up” by the densely populated “areas in the same city.” Most American suburbs — at least the ones in California — operate as independent cities. In my suburb, taxpayers are paying for our infrastructure the same way as taxpayers in the neighboring big city pay for their infrastructure. There’s no city-to-suburb subsidy here.
In fact, suburban tax rates often are lower than urban ones, as we have more efficient services thanks to less bureaucracy, fewer social service programs, more limited public spaces, and less powerful municipal unions. In some cases, suburbs — especially smaller, wealthier ones — have higher tax rates than neighboring cities, but the cities aren’t subsidizing them. The suburban residents are paying them. Cities are sometimes net exporters of tax revenue to the state, although sometimes they are the recipient of more than their share. Suburban Orange County, California, for instance, has long been a donor county."
Canadian cities might be politically organized and run so as to give the appearance of "suburban subsidy", but obviously that's not the only solution - just one that the locals chose or apathetically allowed politicians and special interests to impose. Costs downloaded by higher levels of government are also not the fault of suburbs, except to the extent that they choose to accept the costs rather than ignore the resulting gaps. (Latest example: municipalities choosing to own and run primary care health clinics. That directly competes with everything else the municipalities either must or choose to take on.)
[Add: Baumol's Cost Disease plays a role, too. Governments don't try hard enough to contain labour costs because they are basically brokers negotiating contracts between government workers and taxpayers.]
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District of North Van taxpayers pay significantly more than the city of North Van taxpayers. My street is the boundary between the two municipalities. so different tax rates depending on which side of the street you live on. The District covers a greater area with smaller population.
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I dunno where you live. But here in Ontario, I have seen municipalities absolutely get addicted to development fees to the point that they somehow wreck housing affordability and still cause substantial sprawl. If those development charges were 100% banked in reserve funds, I'd buy that there's no subsidy. But nope, lots of it ends up in general revenue subsidizing current ratepayers. They are all avoiding substantial municipal tax increases through development charges.
As to your argument that the growth ponzi scheme is a myth, the fantastic thing is that we can look at the GTA and see it in action since the suburban 905 and more urban (relatively) 416 are not in the same municipal tax jurisdiction. 905 tax rates are skyrocketing. 416 tax rates are some of the lowest in the province. And the 416 delivers substantially better public services too. Toronto has the largest transit system, largest and most used library system and the largest parks and rec system, not just in the country. But competitive in North America. What Oakville give you in return for five figure property tax bills? That differential actually gets worse for the 905 every year. Especially in places like Mississauga which are running out of land to develop. When there's no cross-subsidy, those taxes go up real fast. This is from 2020:
As an Ottawa resident these days, inside the Greenbelt, I wish this city had never amalgamated. The services I get for what I pay in property taxes are poor value. I would agree with your point that suburbs can be low cost. That's if and only if suburban residents keep their service levels low. But that almost never happens. Especially not in Canada. Folks move to the suburbs and then insist they should have almost the same level of transit, rec services, snow clearing, etc they used to have in the city. That entitlement inevitably leads to subsidization. It's fantastic for 416 residents that their transit system doesn't have to cover the 905 or they'd have shitty services too.
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ah but you have your dental plan and your daycare. You didn't know when you cheered for them that you were choosing between infrastructure and vote buying did you?Can a comparison be made to the massive backlog in repairs to the infrastructure issues facing most (all?) school boards across the country (at least in Ontario) today?
Here's a snippet of the state of repair for schools (both Public and Catholic) across Ontario -
Ontario School Boards: School Building Condition, Student Capacity and Capital Budgeting - This report reviews school buildings in Ontario, including building condition and the state of good repair. The report also compares student enrolment and scho
This report reviews school buildings in Ontario, including building condition and the state of good repair. The report also compares student enrolment and school capacity to examine the number of schools that are under and over capacity. Finally, the report provides an estimate of the cost to...fao-on.org
"As of March 31, 2024, the FAO estimates that 3,037 schools (62.6 per cent) were in a state of good repair (SOGR) and 1,813 schools (37.4 per cent) were below SOGR, of which 1,781 schools required rehabilitation and 32 schools should be replaced."
It doesn't matter if its the current state of the CAF or the current state of the primary/secondary education infrastructure across Ontario (Canada), its a decades old systematic approach by ALL political parties has put us in our current situation. Kick the can down the road and let the next person deal with it.
- By school system, 43.3 per cent of English Public system school buildings were below SOGR, 27.3 per cent of English Catholic school buildings were below SOGR, 31.7 per cent of French Public school buildings were below SOGR, and 25.7 per cent of French Catholic school buildings were below SOGR.
- In total, the FAO estimates that it would cost $21.7 billion to clear the infrastructure backlog and maintain all school buildings in a state of good repair over the 2024-25 to 2033-34 period. This includes $16.3 billion for school buildings in the English Public school system, $4.0 billion for the English Catholic school system, $0.4 billion for the French Public school system, and $1.0 billion for the French Catholic school system.
try finding a competent repair person
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I don't qualify for the first and I missed out on the second.
