MLA Randy Weekes, Delisle mayor Rita Pfoh and the Hon. Carol Skelton after this morning’s announcement of shared federal-provincial infrastructure funding of $175,000 to reroof and upgrade the insulation in the Delisle Arena. It’s one of 56 such projects being announced for the province. (Biggar is their next stop, where they’ll announce funding for the town’s aquatic center.)
The only apparent media on the scene arrived late.
Update – as requested, a photo of the Delisle Centennial Arena.
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.
[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.
[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.