(Post timestamped to stay at the top of the page for the time being. Scroll down for new entries.)
Rita Bourgault is trying to get the attention of the Calvert government – always easier said than done when you live in rural Saskatchewan;
I just moved back to my home community of St. Brieux after living in Saskatoon for 30 years and, then most recently, Calgary for 4 years. This little town is an entrepreneurial success story. It has a population of just over 500 people and about 500 manufacturing jobs. As you would expect, many of the employees have to commute from neighbouring towns.
The crux of the problem is the abominable condition of Highway # 368 (I use that term loosely), between St. Brieux and the town of Lake Lenore. This is the only highway into St. Brieux from the south. This road is almost impassable when the weather is perfect. It becomes impassable when it rains. It is 30 KM of broken pavement with pockets of gravel and warning signs. You would swear you’re driving through a minefield. There have been 2 road accidents involving semi trailers that are attributable to road conditions. The road is so soft in places that I have bottomed out with my 4 x 4 Nissan X-Trail. In the areas that don’t have loose gravel, you basically weave using the entire road trying to avoid hitting the large potholes. I have included some photos of the road so you can see its condition for yourself.
Because of the condition of the road, any manufactured products or supplies shipped in and out of St. Brieux have to be routed through Melfort. This is about a 100 KM detour. This is a significant additional cost to everyone including the environment. Any employees who live to the south of St. Brieux have to travel this very dangerous road on a daily basis.
Besides the negative impact to the companies located in St. Brieux, there are a number of individuals who live in this community who do business and receive medical, dental and other services in the town of Humboldt. This has become a nightmare journey for these individuals. Many of these people are elderly.
My late father, Frank Bourgault, founded Bourgault Industries in 1973 and his sons continue his dream. He founded this company, in a time when many people were leaving the farm and the village, largely to create employment for his children and his community. This has lead to a community with a virtual unemployment rate of 0%. Because of the relative prosperity, the social problems in the community are almost non existent.
Over time there has been a concerted effort on the part of the business and community leaders to work with the government on addressing this crisis. This is not something that has just come about. This is a result of years of neglect of the roads in this vital part of the province. I am told that, at one point, the mayor of the town took the provincial Transport Minister for a ride on this road.
The various manufacturing enterprises ( Bourgault Industries Ltd, F.P. Bourgault Tillage Tools Ltd., Dryair 2000 Inc., Assié Industries Ltd., Free Form Plastic Products, and other smaller enterprises) conservatively annually produce between 150 and 175 million dollars of equipment, much of which is exported to the U.S. and overseas. The revenue to all levels of Government from this little community is probably between 70 and 100 million per year.
Bourgault Industries Ltd. offered to help fund the building of a passable road to southern markets. This offer has been met with silence. It would seem to any fair-minded individual that this community has paid for a decent road time and time again.
This Government always talks about creating employment and yet a community that has done such a good job of keeping its young from moving to Alberta is treated with such contempt.
I am reaching out to you to help to inform the public of Saskatchewan and Canada of this very serious problem. I followed your website very closely during the last federal election. I personally believe that you and other like-minded fair rational individuals have had a major impact on the election by overriding the bias of the mainstream media. I am hoping that you would be willing to help our great little town in its fight for a decent road.
My pleasure, Rita.
More Callers to John Gormley Live this morning included one resident who advised that there were 72 red warning flags along a 16 km stretch of this highway last year.
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Today the Saskatchewan government launched an ad campaign that will promote tax cuts to out-of-province business called “Think Sask”. They have a website… this is how it looked this morning. It’s a subliminal message, I guess. (It’s now been changed) |
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(If anyone has more photos, send them on. Identify the road, send in .jpg format, and not too large, please. If I get enough, I’ll do a followup post next week. My email info is on the sidebar.)
I’m not sure what you’re refering to re: 5000 new civil servants, Kate, but far be it from me to defend wasteful spending. If the civil service is bloated, then by all means, it should be downsized. I would suggest we start by eliminating the Dept. of Agriculture and the farm subsidies that go with it.
MaryJane, stop smoking. Here’s a 3 dollar statscan table I just bought, I’ll just list the April numbers:
Table 282-00891,5,6
Labour force survey estimates (LFS), employment by class of worker and sex, seasonally adjusted and unadjusted, monthly (Persons x 1,000)
Survey or program details:
Labour Force Survey – 3701
Geography=Saskatchewan
Class of worker=Public sector employees2
Sex=Both sexes
Seasonal adjustment=Unadjusted
(in thousands)
Apr 87 – 104.9
Apr 88 – 104.5
Apr 89 – 105.1
Apr 90 – 101.9
Apr 91 – 102.1
Apr 92 – 103.4
Apr 93 – 106.0
Apr 94 – 101.5
Apr 95 – 103.9
Apr 96 – 100.8
Apr 97 – 104.2
Apr 98 – 102.0
Apr 99 – 106.3
Apr 00 – 108.8
Apr 01 – 109.7
Apr 02 – 109.8
Apr 03 – 112.8
Apr 04 – 115.6
Apr 05 – 118.9
Apr 06 – 120.4
So, you were correct. It isn’t 5000 civil servants in the 5 years that Calvert has been in power (Feb 01). . . .it’s 10.6 thousand.
Let’s average that out to 40k/year shall we? 420 million dollars in wages alone. Don’t think the NDP in power gives the SGEU a woody? Think again.
Cheers,
lance
…time to move to Alberta, I’d laugh if the cost to build a new road would be the same cost in moving a town on the Alberta sider…
I remember visiting a friend in Meadow Lake and would drive from Grand Centre/Cold Lake, and like a poster said, I didn’t need a sign telling me I left free enterprize.
Loved those gravel tar filled sections of the highway, made driving more fun as one would shalom around them and play chicken with big semi’s doing the same coming the other way.
Yet, my ol’ farmer friends up in ML and Pierceland swear by the NDP…Devine didn’t help much either.
cheers
tom
…one reason Saskatchewan doesn’t pave the ‘highway’ is an attempt to slow the flow of people leaving the province.
Dang! I said I wouldn’t make a Sask joke again…
Maryjane seems tobe on a mission to dismantle agriculture in Saskatchewan. One thing she should know is that the NDP collect more taxes from farmers (ie: education taxes) and agricultural products (hundreds of dollars on a bushel of barley when tuned into beer) than they pay in subidies. It would also mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. I guess Alberta would be happy, it could solve their labour shortage.
ignore maryjane: she admits to being maliscious, and I think that she works for the NDP!
Hundreds of dollars on a bushel of barley when turned into beer??? How does that work?
hank
I still call Saskatchewan home even though I have lived in Calgary for the past 13 years. I have a cabin at Wakaw Lake and spend time there each summer; because it is still home. My cabin is about 25 miles west of Highway 368 and I know that highway well. It is a disgrace, and so is Highway 41; the main route between Saskatoon and Melfort.
I was just on this highway on Monday and Tuesday and it is hard to believe the neglect that the provincial government has shown towards the roads. Blaming everyone but themselves doesn’t cut it for me anymore.
I know the folks at Bourgault Industries. Gerry Bourgault, the President is one of the nicest persons you will ever meet and certainly the most unassuming. What he and his family have done for agricultural manufacturing is phenominal, they have created an unbelieveable number of jobs in a rural (and without any government assistance; hello Spudco!).
This company does business in the Ukraine, Western and Eastern Europe, Kazakhstan, Australia and South America. I just shudder to think of what thoughts go through the minds of these world visitors on the drive to their factory.
For crying out loud, Can’t the provincial government give Bourgault and St. Brieux a decent road?
and the budget passed and even martin show up to vote …..for what? to earn my cent …i give to beggers like him always
The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first pothole.
It’s to flat to build a good road.
NDP doesn’t like to do anything tangible (you can’t talk spending … they do it like in Brewster’s Millions) unless it’s lining their own pockets.
Your talkin’ out of your ass as usual, ural. Got anything to back that drivel up?
hank
Hank, one bushel of barley makes 333 bottles of beer. I wish I knew how much tax there is on a bottle but it is over half of the price, especially when consumed at a licenced establishment because they add a consumption tax. So even if the tax were $0.75 per bottle (I’m sure it’s higher)the taxes collected would be $249.75 per bushel.
My Brother spends alot of time in Sask. driving around selling welding rods. He’s got a bad road story for every time he goes out there! His company car, a 2005 four door sedan looks like a twenty year old farm truck underneath…
F.Y.I;
I think {by the way he posts} that maryjane is also known as “laughing boy” on other forums. An ndp whacko. Pay him no never mind.
Just a hunch, but the resemblance is uncanny. Anti farmer, pro union and ndp.
368…what a mess….we were going to do some golfing in Humboldt from St.Brieux but after that first trip we are not going back as we would have to get a new vehicle in no time…….we were in Saskatoon not long ago and see that there is a NEW stretch of HIWAY to the reserve if you want to go golfing…..I guess that is more important to Calvert than the huge businesses in this St.Brieux area…I just shake my head as I cant believe people keep voting those NDP back in…I just do not get it I would like to get Ralph to try his hand at this province after he retires from the ALBERTA Govt….
hank,
Just google fast ferries or NDP or Glen Clark. Just bc “fast ferries” will get you 27,000 hits … it’s not hard, you just have to open your eyes. BTW: Not one of those 27,000 is mine.
I’m sure the other provinces can show the same results … don’t have the time to show YOU how ignorant you are.
Lyle, just because a bottle of beer is taxed $0.75, it does not follow that the barley is responsible for generating that tax, anymore than the bottle cap is responsible, or the bottle. Barley is but one small component that goes into the brewing process and a miniscule link in the production, distribution, marketing, retail, consumption chain. Sorry, there may be some justification for ag support, but that old canard ain’t it.
Ural… I thought the subject was SASKATCHEWAN highways. Name me a party of any stipe that was not guilty of fiscal incompetence/malfeasance somewhere along the way and I’ll show you a party that has never been in gov’t. You’ve demonstrated nothing.
henry,
“just because a bottle of beer is taxed $0.75, it does not follow that the barley is responsible for generating that tax, anymore than the bottle cap is responsible, or the bottle. Barley is but one small component that goes into the brewing process and a miniscule link in the production, distribution, marketing, retail, consumption chain.”
Lets see if we can make it simple enough for even you to understand. The tax that Lyle is referring to is for alcohol … in this case beer. Beer is made from barley, hops and water. The tax he is talking about is the contents of the bottle/can … not the bottle/can.
Although everything to do with beer is taxed … the bottle/can/marketing/retail/etc/etc … the tax he is referring to is the contents (the beer).
Lets review … the beer is taxed as alcohol … beer is made by using barley, hops and water.
Lets review … the beer is taxed as alcohol … beer is made by using barley, hops and water.
Lets review … the beer is taxed as alcohol … beer is made by using barley, hops and water.
henry,
“Name me a party of any stipe that was not guilty of fiscal incompetence/malfeasance somewhere along the way and I’ll show you a party that has never been in gov’t.”
It seems that artifact has vanished … so you are my new teacher as far as logical fallacies are concerned.
I’ll nominate ET as my evaluator … he seems to be a little more impartial than my teachers.
I’m calling Argumentum Ad Ignorantium.
ural, Even if you calculate the tax as only a tax on alcohol, the barley component ( at $5.00 a bushel) only has a value of 1.5 cents, a very small percentage of the end cost of the taxable ALCOHOL product. The idea that because beer is taxed and barley is an ingredient in beer therefore every bushel I grow nets the government $250.00 in taxes is ludicrous.
Having visited and lived in Saskatchewan this past summer, I can say without question that even the urban roads in Saskatoon were total and utter human excrement. Half the sidewalks were road level or else at least 30cm up from the road, a pain in the rear if you’re trying to ride a bike around, let along drive a car. There was a giant pothole that was in the middle of the residential street that I lived on. It was ridiculous. Construction that takes a day in a lot of countries seemed to take weeks. There were often days were there weren’t even workers around work sites, on week days. It was utterly ridiculous. I’m glad that someone in the province is trying to take
I have story to tell you all. A friend of mine was spending some time in Arizona a few winters ago when he was approached by a American. He says ” You must be from Canada?” to which my friend replies a proud “Yes”. The American asks which province he lives in, to which he replies “Saskatchewan” . The American fellow then comments ” My buddies and I come up there every year for bird hunting, and that is quite something you all do up there with your roads. It seems everywhere that there is a hole in the road, theres always a little red sign put up to mark it.” Now my friend feeling a tad proud of his province( Yes he use to vote NDP) says a matter of factly ” Why yes there is a red warning sign put up at most every hole.” He then smugly asks the American ” And what does your highway department do to address holes in the road?” The American replies ” Well, instead of putting up a sign, they just fix them!”.
henry,
Your going circular. That’s Lyle’s point – he is getting 1.5 cents on a bottle of beer for the main ingredient … the rest (other than hops and water) is taxes. Lyle also has to pay taxes on the 1.5 cents he gets.
Tell the farmers to quit driving their semi truck grain haulers off the grid roads.It quite easy to say fix them it’s another thing to find the money. I’d put ane extra tax on SUV’s and 4×4 trucks. I’d slow semis down on all highways. 100 kmh on twin highways and 90 kmh on single lane highways. These semi’s destroy our roads and the taxpayers have pay to repair them.
ok4ua,
NDPer? Who else would want to tax the only vehicles that can drive on the flag marked off-road “highways” the NDP government delivers?
ok4ua – These semi’s destroy our roads and the taxpayers have pay to repair them.
As a former trucker, i agree with this statement, but not for the same reasons.
A large part of the damage is due to the weight of the vehicle, not the speed it travels.
Althought some states are begining to allow larger weights, the majority of US states only allow 80,000 lbs. gross weight max, whereas Canada allows appx 144,000 lbs gvw.
The transport industry has paid an enormous amount of fuel taxes, more than enough to have paid for the proper repair, construction, and maintenace of these roads.
At present time, virtually every trucker must fuel up in SK, due to the extreme fuel tax that is levied by this province(fuel tax is calculated for every truck, based on the mileage for every state and province it has travelled through). SK has one of the, if not the highest, fuel tax rates in North America.
The brewer is paid about 2$ a case. the rest is tax.
The big brewerys make their profit from the 2$ by keeping the cost of the ingredients and the labour cost low. Mountain crest brews its beer in the US in a non-union shop to reduce labour costs( or in this case labor costs) and they save the cost of printing that little stamp on the cap “union made”
like the corn in the corn flakes , the barley cost is darn small.
just an aside. Alberta is the largest barley producer and the largest gas producer.
I think they are linked but need another bottle of beer to test the theory.
opening beer also releases green house gases.
You maroons call that a highway- get SNC Lavelin to make a toll-road out of it, (and after they have hosed you on tolls, they can sell it to a foreign-owned investment company-it’s the ‘canadian way’.)
Great article and discussion.
The reason the NDP (MaryJane) hate the farmers is because the farmers won’t vote NDP. The west 1/2 of the province, if you remove cities, hasn’t voted NDP ever! The reason that people in Sask. expect the governments to maintain our roads is because that is one of their core responsibilities supposedly but instead they keep dabbling in places where they have absolutely no business being there (ie. taking over or starting businesses which compete with private industry using public money). They are killing our province but the cities don’t see it and their world needs to come crashing down in order to change this stupid thing. All the NDP talks about in this province is Grant Devine and the debt they claim he put us in (no mention that the NDP before him also had us in debt). However, the last few years we’ve had record amounts of money in the provincial coffers and the Calvert government has put not one penny of that towards eliminating our debt. Kick those losers out or I think the west 1/2 of the province will be so fed up that we may move the Alberta border over.
I don’t hate farmers, boot, I hate farm SUBSIDIES and the huge bite they take out of my paycheck. In the last few years we indeed have had record amounts of revenue and the farm sector has been sucking up every spare dime. That’s my point.
And coyote, I thought opposing business subsidies was a solid Conservative value. How does that make one anti-farmer, pro-union, and pro-NDP?
I grew in Melfort and used to work at Bourgault. I now live in Alberta and if wasn’t for Bourgault Industries, I would have left along time ago. I had the pleasure of driving this particular stretch of road last summer and it has continued to get worse every year. I was just out in the area last week and it seems that Hiway 41 is not to far behind the old 368. Saskatchewan Hiways have been the root of alot of jokes all over North America and this is a prime example of why. PETER D and DAVID BROWN – (a.k.a “Knuckle Draggers” – Have you ever been to this road? I have and I have also been to a few Third World Countries and it is comparable and worse in spots compared to a poverty stricken nation’s back country road however this is a provincial hiway. To me you sound like a couple of ignorant idividuals with nothing better to do than that sit in front of your computer and eat Doritis. Do ya feel a stroke coming on??? Let’s hope! In closing, I love Saskatchewan, but will never again live there, but it will always be my home!
This is yet one more example of governments’ out of touch with what their real responsibilities are.
As taxpayers we see a flood of our money going to all levels of government.Harper is bang on with his view on the current fiscal imbalance.Lets get this money to the governments that impact our lives the most,prov. and civic.
Remind these demi-gods they have basic responsibilities to perform before they start inventing new pet projects to fund.This inexcusable negligence expands well past Sask’s. borders.
I swear,if the NDP ever gets back in in B.C.,I’m going back to AB!
A few years ago I went to Zambia to do some volunteer work. Out of five Canadians, I was the only one from rural Saskatchewan. Guess what? I was the only one who would dare to take the wheel of our Toyota Mini-van and navigate through the maze of potholes. I had lots of practice.
As I sit here in my hotel room in beautiful Banff, Alberta reading the comments above, I am full of mixed feelings. I was born, raised and continue to live in Saskatchewan. On my drive out here on Wednesday, I was listening to Gormley. My wipers were clearing away the raindrops from my windshield. The topic on the radio was the inexcusable shape of some of our provincial highways, such as 368, 19 and others. As John’s voice crackled on the airwaves, I passed by Alsask westbound on Highway 7, suddenly the rain stopped, the dreary grey sky broke open and what was just to my right? The “Welcome To Wild Rose Country – Alberta” sign stood tall against a bright blue sky, basking in the glow of the afternoon sun. Fate? Not sure, but it was definitely a very surreal moment, to say the least.
Based on population trends (the cities keep growing, most rural towns and villages dying), I am of the firm belief that Saskatchewan will re-elect the NDP to another term in government in June of 2007. Mark my word. Calvert will buy his party another term by emptying out the bank account for seniors, health care, natives, union folk (gov’t employees), and will sway the centerist vote to the left. Rural areas will again paint the countryside SaskParty green but the majority of the seats will be urban orange. What will follow will be the single biggest mass exodus of people from one single jurisdiction this country has ever seen. Rural people, pissed off at the NDP, will not give Calvert and his cronies their wish by moving into the cities…they will flee the province in droves (who would want an NDP MLA in the big city when it is their illogical ideology which caused rural Saskatchewan to suffer in the first place?).
If NDP sympathists (like MaryJane and Henry who are in a perpetual state of denial and can’t get past 1972) look forward to paying even more taxes to offset the loss of population and the subsequent erosion of the province’s tax-base, then so be it. I will take my small business, my countless hours of volunteerism, my monetary investments, my positive free enterprise attitude, my 25+ year future before retirement, my wife and my child that will be born later this year to Alberta and avoid any further part in this political cleansing of Saskatchewan. I love Saskatchewan but, like so many others before me and those who will follow me, I need to take care of my family first.
I will not allow an archaic, backwards assed bunch of left-leaning, organized labour-loving sheep herders to consume the energy I have and am willing to share to make this world a better place. It’s really with a heavy heart that I will leave Saskatchewan but, as a close friend who lives in Calgary told me during a quick visit yesterday on my way to Banff, “you know, I got the gears for leaving Saskatchewan instead of staying to try and fix it…but, you know what? You see everyone here so happy…with such a positive attitude and a positive outlook on things that it makes Saskatchewan very, very easy to forget. I can’t ever see myself going back there, I’m too happy here.”
And that, for all the NDPers in denial, is but one person out of thousands who have come to the same conclusion about Saskatchewan.
Here’s an interesting idea: Maybe we should form a militia and invade Alberta. Once across the border we could then surrender and live happily ever after.
“pisssed off driver” I have a better idea, Have Alberta invade, and put the real estate to better use.
Once they fix the roads, I think the locals would walkacross broken glass to prevent the Alberta militia from leaving.
Sounds like a paying proposition actually. I wonder if I could a arrange a private military services company, sell stock options, and simply take over. King of Saskatechewan. Good title.
“pisssed off driver” I have a better idea, Have Alberta invade, and put the real estate to better use.
Once they fix the roads, I think the locals would walkacross broken glass to prevent the Alberta militia from leaving.
Sounds like a paying proposition actually. I wonder if I could a arrange a private military services company, sell stock options, and simply take over. King of Saskatechewan. Good title.
The NDP have been in power for long enough to experience the natural evolution forced upon them by the pressures of Governing. The NDP are beginning to see the failings of their socialist ideology and are getting a little closer to the common sense realization that creating a hostile environment for business drains their ability to fund social programs. However, the likelihood that the NDP could truly embrace business would be like Hyena trying to convince itself and others it is now a vegetarian and newly born game is safe in its presence. The very nature of the NDP, its core beliefs and instincts are undeniable. At its core the NDP believes that the enemy resides in places like the St. Brieux area. The NDP believes that the St.Brieux areas strong entrepreneurial spirit and independence is a threat and should be be crushed by any means the NDP government has at its disposal.(If anyone doubts this simply go to the NDP website and read the “Regina Manifesto”). This documents is the backbone of the NDP ideology and would make any truly free minded individual shudder as its ultimate goals is to destroy economic freedom. Does it make sense to destroy that what creates the revenue, no, it never does, but when have socialist ever made sense.
St.Brieux and area has been under siege from NDP policies for years whether its heavy government subsidies to direct competitors of our companies, property tax assessments that are unjustly amongst the highest in the province and now gross neglect of infrastructure despite reaping millions every year in income, business and property taxes. Enough taxes in a single year that would pay for the upgrade of Highway 368 three or four times over.
Eventually the socialist of this province will have to come to terms with the fact that Saskatchewan has wasted decades by denying opportunity and growth and that hanging on to old and rotting achievements like Medicare keeps us stuck in a quagmire of base line mediocrity.
Will we ever experience our potential? I am not so sure anymore because the NDP government and its policies simply reflects the mind set of the majority of voters in this province and they seem perfectly content with a rotting infrastructure and droves of our best fleeing west to Alberta.
Winston Churchill once wrote:” Socialism is the philosophy of failure the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy”.
He must have been thinking of Saskatchewan when he wrote this .
Well put Claude, I couldn’t agree with you more. It makes me wonder how many people who accept mediocrity in their lives and vote NDP out of fear have ever read the Regina Manifesto. Socialism, in its purest form, basically levels the playing field by bringing those who succeed down to a lower level, both financially (tax schemes) and socially (Medicare).
How does this all relate to highways? No, it has nothing to do with Devine. No, it has nothing to do with the miles and miles of paved “roads”. No, it has nothing to do with our sprawling land mass.
It has everything to do with herding the population into larger centres where social programs can be administered easier, voters can see NDP spending and agree with it and, for all intents and purposes, control the actions and thoughts of the electorate by having them all in large groups. The NDP will continue to hide behind the veil of care and concern for rural Saskatchewan, all the while pushing people into urban areas by neglecting vital infrastructure such as highways, health care and education.
The NDP will continue to say that the province is growing and doing well economically but that money is tight and they can’t maintain every single stretch of road to the standards other jurisdictions do. Meanwhile, Minister Thomson socks away hundreds of millions of dollars into the “rainy day” fund, only to be withdrawn when an election is imminent. The NDP are masters of deception and we all know who the most easily deceived people are: seniors and the less fortunate (yes, the less fortunate happen to be qualified, able workers but choose not to because the government will take care of them…I know at least half a dozen people that can but won’t work because they have no need to).
As long as the NDP keep scaring the bejeesus out of “vulnerable” (read: seniors and the less fortunate) and pander to organized labour and natives, they will be hard pressed to lose an election.
It’s a perpetual death spiral this province has been in since Tommy Douglas first decided to enter politics. As far as the typical NDP sympathizer goes, just remember to leave your membership card at the border when you finally wake up and join the rest of us in reality.
And, let’s not forget one very important item: Lorne & Co. says that in Saskatchewan “no one gets left behind”. I tend to agree to a point. No one gets left behind…but no one can possibly get ahead, either.
“I have a better idea, Have Alberta invade, and put the real estate to better use.”
Not a bad idea, but there IS a catch…
“Once they fix the roads, I think the locals would walkacross broken glass to prevent the Alberta militia from leaving.”
While it is true, the Alberta’s economic spirit would create job and opportunity for Saskachewan, the roads are what shoulders the “burden” of progress…
I just got back from the Oiler game last night, and there is 30 km of highway along the way(near Calling Lake Alberta) that makes those pictures seem like the race-track at Daytona. The highway to Fort Mac is not any easy path to take, either. I wish I could drive on nice flat empty roads, like the ones in Saskachewan.
This topic seems to have started some very interesting philisophical discussions. 35 years ago when I was 19 years old I read “Atlas Shrugged “by Ayn Rand. I found it to a facinating story. I was too young at the time to fully understand her message but the story stayed with me for all these years. She could have been writing about Saskatchewan. Her writings came from growing up in communist Russia . There is very fine between communism and socialism. Socialism just takes longer. The end result is the same. This story stayed with me and I have constantly observed parrallel in the way our society is evolving her in Saskatchewan and the society Ayn Rand describes in her book. Situations that appears so ludicrous in her book are happening every day in Saskatchewan.
You would think that any Govenrment with any common sense would enable a group of people like those who create wealth and prosperity in St.Brieux . Instead they make it almost impossible for them to do buisness. Only individuals with almost superhuman strength and commitment to their communities can continuue to do what they best.
Eventally ,like Ayn Rand characters in Atlas Shrugged they people will tire of the abuse heaped on them.The thing the socialist don’t understand is these people understand the concept of free will and they will leave and go somewhere where they can be free and prosper. The other thing they don’t understand is the fact that these wealth creating individual tend to be people who have little fear of the unknown and they are not afraid of change and risk. If anybody wants to know where Saskchewan will end up if they don’t change this Goverment and it’s anti wealth creating attitude read “Atlas Shrugged”.
A few years ago, 2001 I think it was, the NDP government in Saskatchewan was collecting 395 million in road taxes and spending a grand total of 190 million on road repairs, maintenance and construction. I don’t know what the present numbers are, but they are probably close.
Whoo Hooo
Sold my House in Saskatoon and am off to BC. Reading these posts and current state of Sask just adds icing to the decision to get out.
One more P Eng gone from this province.
Looking forward to all the visits from my S’toon friends in the sunny Okanagan!!
Mr. Calvert and his brilliant cuacus have designated the federal gas tax money to “environmentally sustainable projects” .
The town of Eston is being given a grant from the gas taxes to replace the motor that drives the compressor on the ice plant in the rink with a variable speed motor which will save some power.
Meanwhile the road through Eston was described by an American hunter last fall as “must have been bombed by Bush”. Truckers have refused to truck in that area becase of bad roads.
This is what happens when infrastucture is ignored for too long. Catch up is impossible. I still think it is Grant Devine’s fault for fixing too many roads. He could have deleted them instead like we did with Hospitals and get everyone living in the cities
Hey, congrats on your move Dred! The sunny Okanagan is a wonderful place.
I have one question, though. How much did ISC screw out of the buyer for a title transfer? 🙂
No need to answer, it’s late and I’m just being a ‘tard.
We all know the answer to the ISC question is the same as the fundamental NDP mantra…
“too much” (too much capitalism is bad, too much business is bad, too much asphalt is bad, etc etc etc).
Any room in your moving van for 2 (plus an unborn) more? You could just drop us off in Calgary on your way thru.
Reading this I am reminded of a wonderfull book by P.J. O’Rourke called “Eat the Rich”. In this book he examines all types of economies around the world. He attempts to exlpain why some fail and other’s do not. His conclusions are that the freer an economy is the more suceesful it is . In other words goverment should get out of the way and stop competing with the entrepreuners.
He also has a little story at the end about a saleman who stops to eat supper with a farmer. The family is there but the farmer also has a pig sitting at the table. The pig has 3 gold medals around his neck and a wooden leg.
The saleman asked the farmer why he has a pig at his dinner table. The farmer goes on to explain that that pig was responsible for saving every member of his family at one time or other by his intelligence ,resoursefullness and courage. The salesman is very impressed by this amazing pig and has one more question. “What about the wooden leg?”.
The farmer answers “A pig like that you don’t eat him all at once!!!!”
Does it remind it remind you of anyone Mr. Calvert?
pissed off and dredded boink, you won’t be missed. Now this is just speculation, but I would bet that SK has more miles of good highway than Alberta or B.C. I would bet that SK. spends more per capita on highways than Alberta and B.C. And we do it with the dead weight of infinitely needy agriculture dragging us down.