[andyt]

He's planning to spend billions on repairing and improving infrastructure. Sounds good to me - it's what WAC Bennett did in BC to boost prosperity for years. Interest rates are as low as they are going to get, this is the time to borrow.

The problem is if the economy picks up then govt spending would compete with private for labor and materials, causing inflation and the price of projects to increase. They'd need to figure a way to be sensitive to this, slow down the projects when needed.

But overall, I think he's on the right track. It would create a lot of employment for both Albertans and Ontarians that have been hit hard.

If he agrees to revamp C51 as one of his first acts in office, he'd have my vote.

[OnTheIce]

Unless the rest of the World intends to spend their way to economic prosperity as well, it will only last until the money stops and reality sets back in.

Just as we have seen recently, powers outside of Canada have given us an economic ass-kicking.

[andyt]

This isn't building gazebos and playgrounds, but real infrastructure, which desperately needs improving. If the rest of the world is in a downturn, it won't matter much one way or another, but at least we've removed the impediments that rotten infrastructure causes. If the US picks up, as the expectation goes, then we can ride those coattails, and again have better infrastructure as well. It worked for both Canada and the US last time, we've been living off the benefits without maintaining it for too long.

[Canadian_Mind]

Cool. What kind of infrastructure? If it means fully twinning and building the TCH (including Yellowhead) to a 4-lane, 120kph standard highway from coast-coast, I'll be interested.

[Thanos]

Cough up a couple of billion to get a mega-upgrader/refinery built in Alberta. It's infrastructure because everyone uses fuel and the other produced by-products and the benefit of it is that it creates permanent jobs and not just temporary ones during construction. The governments will have to get involved as financing partners because the oil companies clearly won't do it themselves, no matter how bad the pipeline bottlenecks will keep getting for them, if they have to take on the full cost on their own.

[ShepherdsDog]

Well according to the latest figures the American economy is out performing earlier predictions, so hopefully that has some spillover for us. As car as I'm concerned this is more Liberal desperation talking... empty promises much like the national daycare bs they drag out every election

[martin14]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Well according to the latest figures the American economy is out performing earlier predictions, so hopefully that has some spillover for us. As car as I'm concerned this is more Liberal desperation talking... empty promises much like the national daycare bs they drag out every election

I'm sure lil' Justine hasn't even started with the pork projects.

Just happily forgets how to pay for them.

[bootlegga]

Well, if you're going to run a deficit and spend it on infrastructure, now is the time to do it.

Interest rates are incredibly low and there is a surplus of labour in most of the country, so it's win-win in my books. And infrastructure investment almost always pays dividends long into the future, because it helps people be more productive (spending less time in traffic) and helps get our goods to markets, either domestically or internationally.

[CountLothian]

martin14 martin14:

I'm sure lil' Justine hasn't even started with the pork projects.

Just happily forgets how to pay for them.

It's not pork, thats what the other guy is giving out daily.

I've never seen a Conservative government promise so much to so many different interest groups ever. Of course there is not a Conservative Party anymore just Harperism.

Harper had fun with his mocking the idea of deficit spending but for ten years he told us it was necessary. Problem is where did his go and to what real purpose can we see any reward for it.

The books need examining. A plan needs to be put in place by tried and true people who have real experience.
What we have is just spin doctor smoke and mirrors being told to the public that they know what they are doing when they are in worse trouble than ever.

They Harpeites not only had no back up plan they just basked in oil money and thought it would never end.

Any commodity has it's up and downs.

Gold was over 1800.00 at one time.

You cannot bank on running a country with only a one trick commodity , that obviously you did not know anything about anyway.

When are Canadians going to own up to the fact Harper is no good at economic anything

[Lemmy]

If "infrastructure" means more catering to cars then it's money better not spent. Automobile traffic is a good thing; it discourages use. Dollars, at least in urban centres, ought to be wholly spent on public transit. City dwellers really oughtn't have any use for cars, save travelling out of the city.

[CountLothian]

Lemmy Lemmy:

If "infrastructure" means more catering to cars then it's money better not spent. Automobile traffic is a good thing; it discourages use. Dollars, at least in urban centres, ought to be wholly spent on public transit. City dwellers really oughtn't have any use for cars, save travelling out of the city.

I tried the whole living on the bus thing and was constantly getting the flu and colds.

It's for the masses not me. the Vermin you have to share your time with is as bad as the smells wafting around you.

Crammed in with sick people who scream at you for opening a window is no fun.

It's actually cheaper to drive a car and healthier.

[Thanos]

I worked in downtown Calgary on a temp job for a couple of months about three years ago. Out of the eight weeks the job lasted I missed about twenty days, all because of the repetitive flu and colds I kept catching from taking the bus to the office instead of driving. Absolutely awful experience.

[martin14]

What's a bus ?

[andyt]

Lemmy Lemmy:

If "infrastructure" means more catering to cars then it's money better not spent. Automobile traffic is a good thing; it discourages use. Dollars, at least in urban centres, ought to be wholly spent on public transit. City dwellers really oughtn't have any use for cars, save travelling out of the city.

absolutely we need money for transit. Vancouver needs about 7 billion for the next ten years, just to keep the system up with pop growth, never mind improve it. The feds were slated to pay for about 1/3 of that, if people locally had been willing to pay their share. But noooooo.

I think Thanos has a good point about building some refineries, although i don't see how it would work. In the current system, we'd be buying the feed stock for the refinery from private enterprise, the selling the refined products back to private enterprise, probably at a loss to the refinery, since nobody seems to have been able to make a purely economic case for one in Canada. Maybe it's time for the govt to get back into the oil business, do a Norway or something. If the oil biz is booming, keep the profits in Canada, if it's not, at least provide fuel for Canadians at a fair price.

Highspeed internet for rural communities.

Clean drinking water for everybody.

etc.

[OnTheIce]

Thanos Thanos:

Cough up a couple of billion to get a mega-upgrader/refinery built in Alberta. It's infrastructure because everyone uses fuel and the other produced by-products and the benefit of it is that it creates permanent jobs and not just temporary ones during construction. The governments will have to get involved as financing partners because the oil companies clearly won't do it themselves, no matter how bad the pipeline bottlenecks will keep getting for them, if they have to take on the full cost on their own.

Mulcair has specifically said he will stop funding ANYTHING with respect to the oil industry in Canada. Just some food for thought.