Conservative announcements? Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

I got no PMO press release about this in my inbox. Obviously, the Cons are not hyping the spending they are doing.

I can understand the dilemma for them. After years in the wilderness espousing small government, arguing for the federal government to keep out of provincial and municipal matters... and then to find themselves in government and come to the realization that government can and does do good things for the public, that tax dollars do equal services that benefit the voters, that there is a Grand Canyon chasm between the moronic black and white right-left rhetoric of statistism vs privatization.

Like I've said before, the more this government and The Right Honourable Stephen Brian Jean Harper turn away from their purist ideological routes to a moderate centre, the more they become appealing to the large swath of non-partisan Canadians.

There's a vast gulf for sharing in infrastructure spending (the town also had to raise funds for the improvements) and shelling out millions to your buddies for advertising contracts, Ted.

Now Imagine what the locals could do if the money had never left their community and instead stayed. What marvelous things could be accomplished.

What is the actual cost to deliver $175,000 to these
people all the bureaucrats and channels all the 1000s employed to collect, manage, sort, collate, negotiate etc. it probably cost more to deliver the money to them than they actually received.

This a country that employs 20% of the population in government.

Bottom line is that the tax money is going to help the Community, not to line the pockets of chosen Bag Man Companies that channel it back into the pockets of the party coffers, and that's a good thing!

Why, Jeff, that just sounds so, so, so....AMERICAN! You evil racist bastard!

/sarc

While I'm happy for Delisle, this smells like pork, pork, pork.

The roof is leaking, the town is growing.

"Pork" is funding for projects that don't need to be done. It was the third time the town had applied for funding.

Now, I suppose that it would be better off used funding court challenges, or SOW hiring or.... lol

Don't get me wrong, Kate. I think infrastructure is a prime example of how governments should be spending their money and not abandoning such community-enhancing projects to the public sector. I'm just surprised that so many conservatives now agree with me, and because of that I'm not surprised that the Conservatives have downplayed this example of how appropriate government spending IS preferable to reliance on private spending.

Maybe The Right Honourable Stephen Brian Jean Harper isn't all that bad. Or maybe it's those darn Progressive Conservatives forcing him to serve Canadians instead of ideology.

Kate, don't you think there are more pressing problems in our society than to replace the roof on an old rink?? You live a stone's throw from Saskatoon. Why aren't you sharing a year round facilty that is more energy efficient? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

"You live a stone's throw from Saskatoon. Why aren't you sharing a year round facilty that is more energy efficient?"

WHAT???

Move every wedding dance, high school grad, exercise class, local senior's curler, figure skating lesson and hockey practice for a town of 1000 (and surrounding rural area) thirty miles down the road?

They're already "sharing a year round facility"!

"Kate, don't you think there are more pressing problems in our society than to replace the roof on an old rink?? You live a stone's throw from Saskatoon. Why aren't you sharing a year round facilty that is more energy efficient? The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Yeah Kate,

Why don't all the kids in Delisle just go half an hour into Saskatoon where the only ice time to be had is at 11 PM or 5AM. They don't need a place of their own to be part of their own community teams. I am sure that it would be more efficient to drive 200 kids into Saskatoon a couple of times a week than to operate that arena.

Sarcasm off!

Anyone that does not know the value of a rink to a small town in Canada should not be commenting on this thread.

Congrats Delisle!

Trevor

The sad thing is that it took 3 tries.

The rink in a Saskatchewan town is like a convention centre to a city.

Johnny Jesus, are you posting from an internet cafe?

Jeff,

You saved me a bit of typing.

Thanks.

When you look at revenues received verses services supplied by municipalities,provinces and the feds....things are absolutely backwards.

There is not a rink or Comunnity hall in Canada that has not had some sort of help in finacing from the different levels of government, Lets remember just who's money it is in the first place.
But just for memories sake a prime example is the centre of the universe's help in future subway construction to Nowhere.
Congratulations to the people of Delisle, when smaller communities recieve monies such as this they Know exactly how much is needed, When & where it will be spent.

No,a better idea is when city kids drive to rural rinks,like Delisles and are able to play and or practice at reasonable times.Arcola Sask has a new facility and it is just to far out from Regina to attract many teams but when a young team from Weyburn has to play a team from Manitoba,guess where they pick.Our complex is a favorite with many organizations as they can curl,play hockey,have Sask's largest snow mobile rally,feed everyone and then dance the night away.

Ted

one step further then.....

If we all lived in energy efficient apartments, walked to our assigned job, paid taxes to the central government that would not "waste" it on people that don't "produce".

Would that be more like you envision?

Personally I don't understand how anyone can see fixing the roof on the local arena as a federal responsibility. If it smells like pork, tastes like pork and looks like pork, it is pork.

However I'm not an absolutist. There will always be some pork in politics because people expect it. It is the lack or transparency that breeds corruption and excess that I worry about. With enough transparency, pork becomes self-regulating since the appearance of buying votes is never popular.

This isn't an issue of "statistism vs privatization". The building is already publicly owned, repairing it would the responsibility of the owner - ie the public. The question is what level of government should be taking responsibility. I think that it takes a pretty big leap to make this a federal job.

I don't know if I'm the only municipal councillor on this thread but our small (4 townships) municipality has received infrastructure funding for smaller projects in our area. They are awarded quietly and don't get much press coverage. Even so we operate a couple of small community halls (both of which enjoy a tidy bank balance) and we operate a two sheet natural ice rink which is one of only a handful left in Manitoba. We use the infrastructure money for practical things and don't go for silliness like building fountains in the middle of rivers, etc.

They're doing it right Ted, a concept hard to grasp for some.

When you slam the Conservatives for helping out the various projects around the Country you're implying those taxpayers aren't deserving of federal funds.

Tossing money to Advertising, most all gone without a trace, for the purpose buying Quebecers, the Liberals managed to put a hell of a list on their own ship.

No comparison here.

Looks like good ol' Ted is almost ready for the thought of Edmund Burke. All that's left is the realization thst i-d-e-o-l-o-g-y entails c-h-a-n-g-e.

Including the kind of c-h-a-n-g-e that makes the previously electable unelectable.

(Of course, I'm funning with the spell-stretch. The though of Burke is actually quite complex, and I wouldn't be recommending it had I intended to patronize.)

Howie Meeker is all for the whippersnappers getting a good roof so they can use the rink and all learn the fun-da-mentals of sound hockey....skating,passing and shoot the puck! This is a great Canadian story :-)

I back Johnny Jesus all the way. Trevor, if you need 30 minutes to get from S'toon to Deslise, you need a new car more than you need a roof on the rink.
I used to live in Wildwood, so cut the BS. There were two rinks near the Esso on #6 South that were hardly ever used. How far is beaver Creek from Deslise?
I now live in small SK. town that uses the RM and the town's tax dollars to the tune of $80,000 (yes that's eighty thousand) to keep the rink fired up. Yet when we ask for $3500 for the public library, or $5000 to repair potholes, we get the same BS as Trevor and Sheldon Kotyk are feeding us now.
Rinks were OK when most people lived on the farm, there was nothing better to do in the winter. They didn't use artificial ice, thus the energy bill was low. Today they're the biggest waste of electrical and gas energy on the planet, not to mention an environmental disaster.
I won't go into the disillusionment that kids aquire in believeing that somday, they might play with the NHL. Add the physical abuse and moronic behaviour they aquire from ignorant coaching staff, beleive me your kids could spend much better and cheaper time getting educated.
No one ever dares speak out against hockey, especially in rural areas, mostly because we don't want to break their "Ittsy bittsy hillbilly hearts." God help us that we should ever hear the truth.
If you want to play hockey, build your own rink, pay for the power and gas, and let us use our tax dollars to build highways and hospitals. And in ending, why don't find out what pervcentage of the population plays hockey?? I'd say 5% would be grossly exaggerated. Smoke that your corn cob pipes!

Liz J:

When I write that I think this kind of infrastructure by the Conservatives is a good thing and that maybe Harper isn't so bad after all, how is it you interpret that as a criticism?

But, since you and others mention advertising and Liberals, I will offer you up a criticism: the Conservatives are way way way worse already than the Liberals were when it comes to polling and advertising. The Cons are wasting taxpayer dollars on partisan political ads as we see in the current GST advertising campaign (with the many government policies Canadians DO need to be informed about, were they really worried we wouldn't actually notice the drop in taxes???) or the fact that they have shattered all prior records on spending on opinion polls (averaging 2 per day and on such things as how Canadians view our political parties and whether a tax cut would be popular or not; wasn't this supposed to be the anti-Martin party that governed on principle instead of the latest polling results???).

Conservative-style uber-spending on advertising and polling is partisan and money all Canadians do not benefit from. Infrastructure spending, while there is always the risk of pork (is it only Conservative ridings like this one getting the dollars???), is what we pay taxes for. I don't mind my tax dollars going to Delisle for a hockey rink. It is a very liberal, indeed a very Liberal, thing to do.

Coming from small town Manitoba, I know how important the local hockey rink is.

As Kate said, it's the home to just about every community event held during winter. In my hometown we also utilized the building in summer. Any money spent on its upkeep, is money well spent, regardless of the source.

in rural ontario there are still a few smaller rinks around that double as curling clubs, Community Halls for Rentals & in the Summer time the Arenas/Halls were still used for weddings, Ag/industrial shows, home shows(arena floor area)Lacrosse,ball hockey, dances the list is endless for uses. So therefore the Arenas were just not a winter facility But a year round Community Centre for All. I know at one time this was the same in other provinces.

[quote]This isn't an issue of "statistism vs privatization". The building is already publicly owned, repairing it would the responsibility of the owner - ie the public. The question is what level of government should be taking responsibility. I think that it takes a pretty big leap to make this a federal job.[/quote]

Maybe you haven’t noticed but BIG government has Sucked the life out of Rural Saskatchewan.

HOME rule is one of the canons that stymie the Socialist Collective ideals. Sask needs to put more power back to the municipal level and anything, and i mean anything, that encourages Pll to take charge of their lives, is good policy. How about School boards and hospital services next?

How about now moving the HQ of SAsk energy to Estavan, Sask power to Yorkton, and Sask liquor Board to the NWT.

BTW: Economic efficiency is a Black Art. If the Pll believe in the concept, it "is" efficient. Like the GW toads know you can build an economy on truth or a fraud.

You know - when the National Capital Commission stops spending tax $$ on granite curbs, I think you folks can feel justified in worrying about whether the feds should help small communities bring public recreational facilities up to standard.

And apparently, Lucy could use a good map.

"There were two rinks near the Esso on #6 South that were hardly ever used"

Lucy,

Those rinks are probably close to 45 to 60 minutes from delisle. Door to door at the speed limit, you can't make it to a rink in saskatoon in much under half an hour from delisle. Add to that getting your kids organized and you make that half hour easy.

Just because you don't see the value in team sports, freindship and childhood dreams, don't take it out on the citizens of Delisle.

I see these investments in our communities and children as far more beneficial than 90% of the federal/provincial programs out there.

I guess you, Lucy, would rather see the money spent on government daycare for all the kids that couldn't go to hockey practice after school. If there is any money left over, we could spend it on a program for all the kids that are getting into trouble instead of taking part in team sports.

Give me a break and get a grip on reality.

Trevor

Old joke:

A non-white and a white from Sask walk into a bar in Houston.

Barternder asks, "where you boys from?"

"Saskatoon, Saskatchewan".

Bartender walks away and mentions to his mate that they look nice, but don't speak English. Tee-hee.

PS to Kate: is it true that in Sask you can watch your dog run away for days? As an ex-Montrealer, now Calgarian I've heard this is a fact.

Sorry!! I mean #11 highway, I was referring to the Grasswood Esso Station. Forgive me if I have sinned, Dear friends of Jesus. I do however believe that "Beaver Creek" is nearby, and I do believe there was at least one hockey rink close to the Esso.
In any event, I do beleive that there is a lot unecessary hype around hockey, especially in small towns. And if I've offended your "ittsy bittsy heart," tought tittie!!

To Sheldon Kotyk. Am I writing from an internet cafe?? No I'm not! However by the the looks of the replies I'm getting, I must've targeted the Calgary Zoo!!

I think a new roof for a small-town arena which serves the community in numerous invaluable ways is reasonable. It's not all that expensive, really, if we recall the countless billions with which the Liberals did only God knows what.

Hey, Ted, why not finally leave the LPC and come on over to the Conservative Party, now that they're "not so bad after all"?

Admit it. You like the Conservatives. No need to be ashamed to admit that you were wrong in the past about them.

Your commitment to the Liberal Party is very obviously shaky now. None of the "scary" stuff your guys swore would happen if Harper was elected has happened, plus lots of stuff people like have happened. So far so good. Not bad at all. Still a long way to go to continue the good work, need a majority to do much of it 'cause the hard-and-fast-left Liberal-et-al opposition keep throwing up bizarre, annoying partisan/ideological roadblocks, backing off only when they realize they have no other choice.

The Harper Conservatives have been and still are working hard to serve Canadians and keep their promises. But the opposition doesn't want them to succeed, doesn't want Canadians to have good things, just 'cause the opposition, being so brainlessly hard-left, hates anyone who isn't a leftist like them and will cause any kind of trouble they can think of to slow, and sometimes block, all kinds of good stuff Canadians want. Like hell the Far Left will let Conservatives deliver the goods and get re-elected, preventing the Far Left from wreaking its Communistic havoc all over the place again!

Oh, and, btw, we haven't broken any laws in doing things like taking soundings as to what Canadians want/don't want, letting Canadians know what we're doing, etc. After all, Canadians want their government to care about what they want and to tell them what they're doing.

What we're doing is far better than blowing billions on canoe museums, ice cream parlors, golf courses, hotels, statues in rivers, Jean LaFleur's big vacation in Costa Rica, the list goes into the three figures at least... and, tell me, don't you worry about the outcome of the three dozen continuing criminal investigations into Liberal behavior while in office? And how about what we'll find out about the nine billion or so dollars squirreled away in the mysterious, until-recently-untouchable "foundations" and what happened to the money? Really, there's so many skeletons yet to be yanked out of closets all over the place... do you think the gov't isn't interested in finding these skeletons to expose them to the light of the MSM cameras to remind Canadians just how horrible the Liberal Party really was in terms of governance and how astonishingly out of touch it was with Canadians it was (and still is, no doubt, as they clearly haven't bothered to self-criticize and change appropriately)?

Come on, buddy. Listen to your common sense and join and vote for the Conservatives.

The best is yet to come, friend! ;)

What are Ted, Lucy in te sky drinking....for years cretin and company wasted billions on pie in the sky crap... gun control: 84 dead in toronto in 2007, adscam: cash in envelopes in Quebec, shawinagate, golf course?, cretins name on golf balls, 185M scam at DND.. and your upset about 180000 for a rink? ... get a life

Lucy...

Jemini 4 arenas. Four rinks. So if they are never used why is my ice time in the Adult Safe League usually after 10PM?

Those rinks are booked %100. My team(we are all older now have kids of our own) wanted to get a block of time for a game so our wife's and kids could see us play. no luck

Hockey and the rink, is part of us here in Sask.

Go back to your Starbucks.

And the rink in Kate's hometown....... there is nothing like the feel of an old "Barn" to watch/play a good game

Lucy, Beaver Creek is in the Yukon Territory.

Congrats to Delisle! Arenas, like Court Houses, need a roof if they are located in Sask. Why should taxpayers be forced to pay for ugly 'new' courthouses (like the one in Whitehorse) when most of us prefer not to go into the place, Ted?

You probably don't go to rinks and since they have banned smoking in rinks, I don't either - I also do not enter courthouses unless someone is being treated unjustly by the so called judges and their comrades the lawyers. I could care less if the roof leaks in a courtroom.

Lucy still needs a map.

"There's a vast gulf for sharing in infrastructure spending (the town also had to raise funds for the improvements) and shelling out millions to your buddies for advertising contracts, Ted."

Perhaps, but there ain't a dime's worth of difference when you're shelling out freeloading swill for your buddies on the farm. There is a difference in degree, of course. Whereas the aforementioned advertising contracts involved paltry millions, freeloader farm subsidies involve billions, such as the recently announced $600 million being mailed out as we speak in the reinstatement of the egregious NISA program. This is on top of the earlier $400 million for the "cost of production" mailout. And who are the beneficiaries of this loathsome windfall? Why Carol Skelton, Randy Weeks, and Elwin Hermanson, to name but a deserving few. What hypocrisy.

Lucy,

I totally missed the point that it is highway 11 and not 6. Grasswood esso is what I was talking about and it is at least 45 min to an hour from Delisle. Add another 1.5 hours if you want to go to Hwy 6

Lucy you obviously know nothing about hockey or rural Saskatchewan. Those arenas are almost always booked solid all year long.
When posting stupidity at least have a semblance of truth to it. Twit.

Hi Kate
I am live near a small town as well and I would like to see a photo of the rink/roof.
Glenn

kate, the reason that the media was late in showing up in delisle is because nobody, including myself, cares about what happens in delisle.

Im a saskatoon resident, btw.

Other notables at the trough: Bill Boyd, Lyle Stewart, Tim McMillan, Don Toth, Don McMorris, Nadine Wilson....the list goes on. And then there's the Conservative Party caucus. Sheesh.

Hey lucy,played to many games without a helmet,nobody wanted you on their team,....? Want money for books?...run a 50/50 draw,have an auction,bake sale,raffle table. You should check out the rink you'll get lots of cool ideas. OMG,roofs on rinks in Canada...god save us!

I've updated the post with a photo of the arena, taken today.

Good on Delisle. In Aberdeen we have a New Rink complex.

Johnny, Lucy, Ted, Manny. Here's a news flash kiddies; The Infrastructure grants programs in all of their various incarnations were in fact introduced by the Liberal government in the early 1990s. All project applications are forwarded to a board which reviews them and decides whether or not they merit funding. While it may have changed since I was a town councilor, at that time the project was cost shared, 1/3 by the Feds, 1/3 by the Province, and 1/3 by the Municipality. Not at all unlike the programs that built the roads, bridges arenas and stadiums in larger urban centers for many, many years and indeed still does.

To infer, let alone state, that small town Canada rinks are only for hockey displays a hopelessly out-of-touch attitude. In this small town, there is indeed hockey. Boys, girls, adults, rec league, beer league, lots of hockey. There's broomball, men's, mixed, rec. and participants from this small town have played with the Provincial team at the National level. There's Can skate, powerskating and figure skating. There's recreational skating for those who enjoy the exercise, but no longer want to play the game or work for the competitions. There's curling, men's womens, mixed, Juniors and Seniors. High school and Competitive Men's and Women's. There's walking programs in the lobby every day for those who need a little exercise, but can't brave the elements anymore due to various health concerns. I'm thinking that these activities likely decrease health care costs (physical activity and healthy living), cut back on policing and court costs (because an involved youth is less likely to be a bored restless youth), builds self esteem, and promotes teamwork. In summer it hosts wedding receptions, socials (Yes, I'm from MB), serves as a display building at the local fair, hosts auctions, and myriad community events.

So for a once in, lets say 40 year cycle, that would be about $4375.00/yr. Seems like a good investment to me. It probably saves that much in reduced wellness costs, and less disaffected youth. And as the Lib-left likes to say "If it saves just ONE life, it MUST be worth it.

Manny, one more thing. Your farm subsidy whine is really getting tired. Please explain how what you do for a living receives no direct or indirect subsidies from any level of government. Because you can't if you're in Canada.

And, BTW, I don't farm. Or run a business that is directly dependant on farming.

Ted, you're a mess of contradictions, not surprising, there's a lot of it going around in the Liberal Party these days. It's the Party of befuddlements. Fuddle Duddle, to quote a Liberal Leader of the past.

Sober, I don't have a problem with infrastructure spending in general or the Delisle roof in particular. I was responding to Kate's holier than thou retort to Ted, in which she alluded to the trivial sums involved in adscam while showcasing two participants in farm scam, both of whom are in the top 1% of income earners, both of whom regularly receive big fat checks in the mail just for being farmers. To my knowledge, there is no one in any other walk of life with this arrangement. Lucy may need a map, but you so-called "conservatives" need a moral compass.

Sober:

Thanks for reinforcing my point, and for throwing in the kudos for a good Liberal program.

Some of you folks are so much wrapped up in being contrary, you seem not to recognize when someone is in agreement with you.

Or, to put it a little more accurately, when you come around to agree with them, since it was as you point out a Liberal program that Kate and other conservatives (despite their ideological inclinations) indirectly praise in this post.

This is government doing the work that it should to make our communities better. Not pie in the sky or abstract 50 years from now priorities, but stuff that ordinary Canadians from every region need or want and that benefit most everyone in some way. That is the lesson today's Liberals have forgotten and a Liberal past that Dion seems to want to erase.

Manny, as asked, what do you do for a living. Until you explain to me how you receive NO benefit from any government subsidy, I would advise you not to counsel me on MY moral compass.

You see Ted, it is just that old saw that keeps getting trotted out: The job of the opposition is to critique the government, not mindlessly oppose it.

The big thing is that conservatives are much better at it than liberals.

But, hey, thats one of about a dozen decent Liberal programs since the early 1960s. Not much of a legacy for a party that governed as long as they did.

Manny,Ted, et al;There is a weekly paper published in Saskatoon called the Western Producer.In the classified section there is a heading called Farms and Ranches.Under this is a sub heading called Saskatchewan.These are farms listed for sale in our province.These farms range in size from a few acres to one of over 11,000.Pick the one you like.There are over a hundred listed.I would recommend that you buy one and get on the gravy train.In the same edition there is a 2005 JD combine for only $216,900 at Farm and Ranch in Saskatoon to get your crop harvested. You better be smarter than you are to take my advice.

As a former president of a community club in the prairies, I can tell that Lucy and others have never been anywhere near a community facility or activity. You don't have to play hockey to realize that this facility is an important part of the community. Also this government money wasn't delivered by brown envelope. The community also has to put in a lot of their own monies and sweat equity in order to even be considered for a grant. Chances are that the roof or whatever project will employ local labour and materials. An all round good "waste" of taxpayer's dollars if you ask me. Maybe Lucy has a better use for those tax dollars.

Way to go Delise. btw, I thought Kate was the mayor...

manny you left out Nettie Wiebe, Bernie Wiens {government irrigation system} and the rest of your socialist crowd. Why? Complete you list if you are going to throw dung at the farmers who feed your sorry ass.

Only people like Manny/MaryJane, Ted who supported a party so corrupt that it would make John Gotti blush would have the unmitigated gall to preach to conservatives.
Conservatives will punish those who leave integrity behind rather severely as the Progressive Conservatives found out when they were decimated to only a few seats.
These sociopaths have a demented world view and project their own behavior on everyone and every situation without ever taking responsibility for the slime they stand for.
They insist that everyone else is stinking up the room when in fact the stench is coming from underneath their own skin.

"Howie Meeker is all for the whippersnappers getting a good roof so they can use the rink and all learn the fun-da-mentals of sound hockey....skating,passing and shoot the puck! This is a great Canadian story :-)"
(Howie Meeker, 2:29PM)

"I won't go into the disillusionment that kids aquire in believeing that somday, they might play with the NHL. "
(Lucy, 2:31PM)

1943 N.H.L. Scoring champ... Doug Bentley
1946 N.H.L. Scoring champ... Max Bentley
1947 N.H.L. Scoring champ... Max Bentley
Both Delisle, Saskatchewan boys.

1000 people in Delisle?
Let's say there are 250 full time workers working in the town, or commuting from Saskatoon each day. Oh, maybe $30,000 gross annual salary each. Say, $4000 per head on average in federal income tax --just Ottawa's share-- makes for $1,000,000 in income tax collected from ONLY Delisle tax payers in a single year.

I think the townspeople have paid for the rink upgrade all on their own. How about it, manny?

Sure as hell beats spending $100,000,000 for exactly 4/5s of 9/10s of sweet bugger all in the P.A. area.

[quote]They didn't use artificial ice, thus the energy bill was low. Today they're the biggest waste of electrical and gas energy on the planet, not to mention an environmental disaster.[/quote]

Lucy,
Don't the Pll of Sask “OWN” Sask Power/GAS. Your not suggesting that the PPL's Municipal facilities are paying FULL rates for their own power (double dipping). What is the incremental generation cost factor for a Kilowatt?

Do you think the Rinks are destroying energy? maybe we just need to create some new energy!

Environmental disasters are portrayed in the Movies or Video Games. I haven't actualy been to an environmental disaster.. when is it playing?

Lucy you are right that they used to play hockey at beaver Creek. That was about sixty years ago from the pictures I've seen. But because of the bends in the creek you would have a hard time getting a full length arena at any point. Then you have the problem of an arena only ten to fifteen feet wide unless the beavers are left to do their magic. As far as the Delisle kids using Beaver Creek. As the crow flies it's not far, about 30 min. BUT there is that river the kids have to make a flying leap across to play their hockey, as long as someone brings a shovel.
Good on Delisle on the new roof soon.

"I would recommend that you buy one and get on the gravy train."

Sorry, Spike, but I prefer to make it under my own steam. Somewhere along the way I developed an aversion to living off of the hard work and effort of my fellow taxpayers. Maybe my Anglican mother is to blame, but being a parasite is just not my style.
Not that it's any of your business, Sober2nd, or that it is in any way relevant, but I am employed in the residential construction industry. Now connect the dots for me. Show me where there is anything even remotely comparable to the annual $5 billion plus in direct subsidies that end up in the pockets of the Skeltons and Weeks', the Hermansons , the Toths, the Stewarts, the Boyds, the David Andersons, etc., etc., etc......

Manny, Sask has only ONE non Conservative MP in the Federal House of Commons - Goodale from Regina. The 'pockets of pork' cover the entire province! If the $$ have been so lavished on Sask., why did so many Sask. people move out? Sask has FINALLY elected a responsible government - things are already improving...do you have a problem with IMPROVING?

There is alot to be said for living life in a small town. I grew up in one. I got to skate and play hockey in an old rink, play baseball on good diamonds, tennis on paved courts and so on. Maybe there are some who think that small town kids shouldn't have these amenities. Some may think that its better for kids to have their nose stuck in front of a computer screen or Game Boy 6 hours a day.

As for "ignorant coaching staff" to this day I have nothing but gratitude and admiration for the fine gentlemen that coached me in hockey and baseball (usually the same ones). They may not have been the most "competent" men as coaches but the life lessons us kids learned play sports and being mentored by good people are far more important than anything I ever learned about making an nice pass or laying down a good bunt. It is shortshighted in the extreme to putting it all down to skill in sport and the cost of heating and lighting a sports facility. The cost to society as a whole is much greater for not having amenities for kids in towns big and small.

From ontario; you guys need alife Mginntee pisss 5 times that much away to his buddys soccer club before breakfast.

manny;I repeat,buy a farm and pay for it with after tax money.Better still,if your in the construction business,start one of your own! Hire people,buy trucks,get contracts.Risk your own money,you may have to mortgage your home for start up money but if your any good you will make it.You are a parasite when you work for somebody else,more so if your unionized.When you bad mouth farmers,you better look at the drop in the number of farms in the last 70 years.If Saskatoon took the same hit it would be the size of Delisle now.Trudeaus cheap food policy didnt apply to Ont.and Quebec.

This is government doing the work that it should to make our communities better. Not pie in the sky or abstract 50 years from now priorities, but stuff that ordinary Canadians from every region need or want and that benefit most everyone in some way. That is the lesson today's Liberals have forgotten and a Liberal past that Dion seems to want to erase. -Ted

--Thank you, Ted, for your warm praise of the Conservatives' performance as government. And for your courage in expressing your long-bottled-up contempt for the Liberal Party of Canada as it today has become, likely irreversibly.

You're welcome to defect, my friend. We're always having folks coming over to us who've had epiphanies.

"stuff that ordinary Canadians from every region need or want"

And have paid for, over and over and over again, through tax dollars that leave and are damned slow about returning.

I happen to agree with those who wish that such projects were completely self-supporting. And I happen to believe that if our various levels of governments weren't pulling 50% of income out of the pockets of the average taxpayer, they'd have the money to contribute to local projects like this themselves, through donations or user fees.

And one thing that larger centers can't say about similar projects and facilities - the residents of these small towns provide tens of thousands of dollars worth of volunteer labour, during both the construction process, and the functioning of the facility, year in and year out. (The golf course adjacent to the arena was built on volunteer labour).

That's a contribution that is non-existent in urban centers, and it's one reason you'll be long in waiting for any apology when they receive matching grants for infrastructure projects like this.

"through tax dollars that leave and are damned slow about returning."

Cities pay more
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/
archive/June2007/07/c2033.html

Whoops

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2007/07/c2033.html

Lotteries take Millions out of rural areas on annual basis easily dwarfing grants like Delisle received.
They barely return even a tiny fraction back to rural areas.
This also even holds true for excellent charities like Telemiracle.
Point being those fussing over this relatively tiny grant as if it was somehow unfair to someone else is a moron.

Couldn't connect those dots, sober2nd? Thought so.

A feel good story.

The residents of Delisle, as well as taxpayers throughout Canada, have been footing this bill for the non-taxpayers.

http://www.vch.ca/sis/faq.htm#qa7

**Sorry!! I mean #11 highway, I was referring to the Grasswood Esso Station. Forgive me if I have sinned, Dear friends of Jesus. ** Lucy

Well, here's your problem, then. You don't realize that between the Grasswood Esso (and the mentioned rinks) and Delisle there is the South Saskatchewan River, and one must use the Idylwyld Bridge until we get enough PORK from some different levels of government to build the new South bridge. Adds considerable time to one's commute from Delisle.
So, you really don't know the area, so why comment? Which is a moot point, since, as others have mentioned, the rinks at Grasswood are already fully booked. Besides, what on earth do you have against Delisle having their own facility? My, what people will pick on. $175,000 is peanuts to our government. Good on them for finally helping out a still-vibrant rural community.

So manny, now you want your industry to receive as much funding as farming or you don't qualify as a parasite living off of government handouts hmmm? Typical. What you said was you weren't a parasite and survived on your own. Not that you weren't as big a parasite as others, but that you weren't a parasite and you received no subsidies.

No subsidies to the mills that produce dimensional lumber, no subsidies to the plywood mills, or the OSB mills. No subsidies(or property tax incentives) to those people who wish to build new commercial buildings, or to build new housing. no subsidies(kickbacks) to the builders/developers who set up the subdivisions? No subsidies to the builders of new houses in rundown areas for revitalization. No subsidies to the manufacturers of windows and doors. No subsidies to the people who buy said energy efficient windows and doors and get the trade to install them. No subsidies to the cost of your education in your chosen trade. No subsidies for the people who employ 1st and 2nd year apprentices. No government funding to the unions that represent said trades. That's the obvious ones. I'm certain it won't take long for the list to get bigger, but it doesn't have to. The point is moot.

Now apply these subsidies across the country, and I think you will find a level of funding not far from the level you seem to despise that agricultural producers get. So climb off of your high horse, and admit it manny. You are no more or less a parasite than 99% of the rest of the population.

I would apologize for the delay in my reply, but we don't all work 8:00am - 3:00pm Monday to Friday trade union positions. Replied as soon as I could, once I got done work for today.

I now await your customary whiny-assed reply. The one where all us conservatives only pay lip service to free enterprise and where every farmer is filthy rich and doesn't deserve protection from predatory and punitive practices carried out by every other agricultural producing nation, while these same nations rail on self-righteously about how subsidies are unfair. (For everyone but them)

So think of two words manny, involving sex and travel. And that would be my summation.

[deleted. Learn to stay on topic. -ED]

Attention all;The Arcola rink complex(Prairie Place)was financed 100% by the people of our district.There was NO govt funding and its paid for.Now ,lets talk about those projects in Ottawa financed by taxpayers with not a dime raised locally.I was at an air show and the wing walker was sponsered by the guy that installed the stone work on those projects.

I see socialism is alive and well in rural Saskatchewan! ;) Just kidding. Seriously, it is good to see the fine folks of Delisle finally get back some of their hard-earned taxdollars.

That's hilarious!! Lucy, and a many others (including myself) who believe in "Conservative" policies speak out against blowing money on replacing the roof on an aging rink, and all of a sudden, we're the darkest of heathens. I thought this was an ultra-Conservative blog!!
What the hell did we elect a Sask Party government for anyway? The same goes for the federal level? It was to stop insane spending! Does anyone really beleive that replaing shingles on a rink should become a federal or provincial issue? Gimme a break. A community of 1000 should be able to raise that in a year! I live in a small town as well. A group of seniors, the youngest who was 77, knit Afghans for "Telemiracle" and they raised $2700 in 40 days.
How about the old addage, "Let it end with me." You want to skate and throw rocks, pay for your own ice. There's less than 2% of the pop. who skate and play hockey!

JJ;Less than 2% skate and play hockey,Hmm,lets see,how many Sask residents play pro football?Very few? What did it mean when a bunch of Canadian and American football players won the Grey Cup for Sask and what percentage of those players were from Sask? 99% of the people in the Arcola area use our facility regularly and very few skate.These facilities should also be supported by local RM taxes to make the non residents support them.

Spike!! Delisle is hardly the home of professional hockey. I support the idea of RMs and towns paying for their own rinks. "Infrastructure" should mean roads, bridges, streets and other facilities that are accessible and that serve the general public. The rink in Delisle is not an institution that serves the general public of Saskatchewan and/or Canada. And by the by, why do we have the 649 and other Lotteries?? I believe they are the ones who should support arenas. Now, could we get on with another topic SVP???