fellowtraveller

Ah, but it does not have to be that way. The additional cost was not necessary.....Public Works & government Services is an example. They outsourced a lot of property management services and 'asset management' positions to contractors, then simply converted all those redundant jobs into micromanaging the contractors. It was ridiculous and doomed to cost more. But it served the objective of keeping all those middle and senior managers in safe, well paid postions indefintiely while the unions can wring their hands and say 'see, no benefit'. Nope real change will take spine at levels never seen in Canada. A reasonable model and guide to reform would be Australia, where nearly all civil servants are not in lifetime posiitons. There, most are on employment contracts with an end date. If you fail to perform- or equally important if your role is redundant- you look for another job. Just like people in the private sector, imagine that..

The Stanley Cup is not a Canadian trophy, and the NHL is not a Canadian league.The Stanley Cup does not belong in Canada, iot belongs to whichever NHL team earns it. It is likely the hardest trophy to win in professional sports, the playoffs are a marathon. But it is not the property of Canada in any way, it goes to the league champion, and every team now is international. The only way I 'care; about the Cup is when my team is in contention. I appreciate the effort of the teams and the often great hockey, but no, there is absolutely no reason to jump on the Canucks bandwagon or that of any team but my own.

I wholeheartedly and without reservation support Bob Rae as interim and permanent leader. The Liberals might get to single digit MP counts with him at the helm. Jacques Layton is going to find a whole pile of difficult constituents in Quebec, and the combo may just hand Harper or whomever runs the Tories in 2015 a massive majority. Go Bob!

You're an optimist, they've been trying to consolidate for decades and every junior manager and up- and there are legions of them- fight this trend like wolverines defending their young.Departments like CRA, Defence, Indian Affairs, HRDC have big budgets and much power and resist change fiercely. All of them do, really. It has nothing to do with common sense, and everything to do with protecting your job and pay grade. And it applies all the way to Deputy Minister level- and beyond. I'm not saying it cannot be done, but it will take a terrific fight.

What does cheering or not cheering for the Canucks have to do with Canadian nationalism? They are not Team Canada, this isn't the world championships or the Olympics or World Juniors. I support a different NHL team, that is who I cheer for, first and foremost. I don't cheer for teams simply because they are leftovers. I still watch hockey, because I like it. The Canucks do have one special attribute: Vancouver fans are the worst in the league. There is a strong body of evidence, capped by the fact that they booed their own team off the ice when they were beaten last year by the Hawks in the semi-finals. After the Canucks gave it their best over an long season, fought long and hard and were beaten by a clearly better team- they get booed as a thank you. Pathetic. It does not happen anywhere else at the end of a season. Another pathetic note- the sadsack playoff national anthem singalong, trying to emulate the passion of another Canadian city.....Sad and lifeless, please stop embarassing yourselves.... Oh, and they are the only team in pro sports with a life size bronze monument dedicated to the commemoration of whining and surrender on their premises.

And the actual dollar amount that is paid by taxpayers in this scheme? So far, zero. The ticket fee already exists and has been in place for about 15 years. The additional $125m is in the form of a CRL, taxes above and beyond what property owners pay now within the arena district go towards a mortgage on the new building. The old money still goes to the city, not Katz. The new money doesn;t go to Katz either, but to the mortgage.Ther is also a ticket tax at Commonwealth, which just went up yesterday to fund improvements. Let us all howl at the injustice of football fans and concert goers having to pay, just as they will at the new arena. Yet not a peep of complaint from you for the last 15 or so years when it was called a ticket surcharge. Why is that?

Wrong, Canada is a federation of provinces and Quebec is one of them.You lost all aspirations to actual nationhood 200 years ago. Get over it. But let us imagine that Canada is a union of nations. How do you propose to deal with that other Nation within Quebec: First Nations? Surely you would agree that they were here long before your people and have a right to select their destiny that is demonstrably superior to your own? What land within Quebec will be their birthright, or do you propose to cheat them again?

a legion of auditors at CRA is already sharpening their knives and drooling. The basis of establishing/operating a business(incorporated or not) is expectation of profit generated by the business activity. Didddling around with your own static investments and pretending you have legitimate writeoffs will guarantee that you will get intimate with their interview rooms. And then the few bucks you saved on an accountant now will be ntohing when its costing $200/hour and the meter will be running.all the same deductions are available incorporated or not. Your assets are not really protected in an incorporated company unless you have massive assets. if you tke small loans or credit cards as a company, you won't get the credit unless you have specific corporate assets a collateral or provide personal guaranatees. Banks are not that dumb. Get professional advice. Mine told me there is very little difference in tax outcomes (incorporated vs unincorporated) unless you have significant income generated by business activity and significant legitimate costs in generating that income. If you can't show both, hello major penalties!

It is all part of Harpers hidden agenda. James Moore may well be Harpers replacement in a few years.

Why? I admire Quebec voters, they don't waffle on what they want from their MPs- money and plenty of it. The Bloc was quite successful at getting it, now the NDP has that job. Jacques Layton can dress it up in fancy rhetoric, but I doubt he has any illusions abut what are now his constituents are used to getting and demand from him. No, I mean much more money than that. Examples like this hurt the NDP, since they have no way to take any credit for any of that. And after Harper passesa the HST gravy, he can get away with doing very little, referring the fiscal beggars to their own party- the NDP.

calm down. None of those things are known yet.

of course you do. Cant possibly build the new subdivision until water sewage and drainage capacity is in place. The expectation is most definitely that revenues will be the payback, they dont do it unless there is that specific expectation. Cities help themselves in this regard by controlling development. Anthony Henday, Windermere subdivsuion,Summerside, Ellerslie, all of Mill Woods, Castledowns,Winterburn industrial,all the development in northwest on 156 st and a whopper the Heartand project where billions are going into infrastructure well in advance of a shovel in the ground or a penny in tax generated. etc etc etc etc. First came a huge whack of civic investment, then came the land sold to developers, And all of was risky to some degree.

It would be a really unfortunate navigational error to mistake Copenhagen for Tripoli. Who can keep all that left, right, north south stuff straight in their heads? Not me.

Happens all the time: municipalities build out major infrastructure for residential and industrial subdivisions all the time. They expect that developers and investors will buy the land, build houses and businesses, resell same to retail buyers and the resultant property taxes will pay back the cost of roads, drainage, gas, water sewage, power infrastructure plus a profit.Usually it works that way, sometimes it does not, but that does not stop cities from doing it , based on their best business case. Why is this any different? All development has risk. Nobody knows the details of what is on the table. And you are completely wrong about that, cities, provinces and feds routinely kick in plenty of $ to entice business in many different ways.Advertise that you are a medium size business and offering to build a plant in Canada that will employ a few hundred people indefinitely. You would get at least 100 offers from govts, and the starting point would be free land, no property taxes and free infrastructure to your front door. Guaranteed. It happened not long ago in Edmonton, with the meat packing plant that ended up in Brandon.

So what? As long as the means of repayment are defined, and the money does not come from any existing tax base, who cares? Again, so what? It takes 15 minutes in council to renew or amend the tax. And the tax is not coming from taxpayers, it comes from facility users. Doesn't matter what happened elsewhere, what is at issue is really this: if the city has an equity stake in the project, do they get an equal stake in revnues or control of the project?The CRL is the wild card here, it is unclear if the increased tax revenues from the areana/arts area will be less, equal to, or more than the payments on the $125 million. It seems a small risk for a potentially large return. Oh, and the claim that private money built the arenas is misleading. All those municipalities kicked in big chunks of money-in-kind through large infrastructure injections, roadways, transit, ongoing tax breaks. A major sport venue is no different than any other business in that sense, cities routinely offer many and major incentives to business to locate and expand within their borders.

Then let us hear , as a central plank in Madame Marois appeal to Quebec before the enxt election, that she will refuse to accept the $8 billion per annum in equalization money, starting immediately. Before that, let's hear you agree that would be an excellent start to nationhood- stop taking food from the hand of your oppressor. And Benz, while you are in pondering mode, please educate us on a central puzzle: I am entirely willing to concede that Canada is divisible, that if a majority of Qubecois wish to form a sovereign nation they have that right. Now you confirm that as Canada is divisible, so must be Quebec. Or, explain why not. Unless you intend to be a fascist, racist regime, surely you must grant the same options to First Nations people as you claim for yourselves?

Again, what tab? So far, nobody from the city has said the city will pick up any hard costs. The ticket tax already exists and taxes users of the facility, not taxpayers.No accord on the ticket tax yet? Pffft. Katz has no control over it, if he wants cooperation from the city he won't oppose it. His option is to pay it all himself. He has been making mild noises about leaving Rexall in 2014 and veiled threats to leave Edmonton. Fine, let him. There are half a dozen teams that would move here in a heartbeat. Why? Because it is a very profitable market, with or without Katz. All this crap about 'no accord on ticket tax' is for dense rubes who don't recognize a weak negotiating stance when they see one.

I say we CRUSH these bacon loving flatlander Dansk. Just as soon as we get some equipment back from Afghanistan.

Ah, no. The reason the lord of the manor protected his serfs is that they were the tools that made him wealthy. A better parralel would be that he protected them from harm in the way he brought iron tools in from the rain so they would not rust.

Note that those cable cars have very limited scope within SF and are mainly a tourist attraction. Aside from that, SF has very good transit, mostly buses and commuter rail.You could not pay me to live in Toronto. People have tried just that, to pay me to live there, and have all failed.

Oh, and for those that use the derelict area around Rexall as an excuse that the arena being located downtown won't stimulate development? Consider this- the neighbourhoods of Norwood and Eastwood were much better places to live when Rexall was built, the area called Alberta Ave (or 97th St)and downtown were Edmontons worst neighbourhoods. Not any more. Downtown Edmonton had very few people living there, and the flight to the suburbs for shopping was well advanced. Not any more, the flight is reversed. In the last couple decades people have flocked back to downtown, which raised property values, raised rents , raised taxes and squeezed many of the poor and derelict out of downtown. Where did the poor go? They went to Norwood and Eastwood, the areas immediately adjacent to Rexall. That is now one of the poorest parts of the City, and it is occupied by people who used to live in and near downtown. Things change, Downtown Edmonton is alive again, and this project will be pure adrenaline. What is needed now is twofold: figure out the few remaining dollars and issues in dispute, then get on with it while construction costs are still manageable.

OK, au revoir et bonne chance. Hope you can find a new market for all that dairy......Oh, one thing, you'll have to negotiate the division of Quebec with those other owners, the people who got there long before you and have a distinct nation of their own: First Nations. I know you'll try to bully them out of their birthright and right to choose their own destiny, but that won't happen.

This number has nothing to do with the project or taxpayers liability.At this point: Katz will pitch in $100 million. About $125m will come from a ticket tax, a tax which already exists on Rexall events. $75m will come from increased property taxes in the area, which currently generates much less. What has not yet been accounted for or sourced is the $100 million remaining. What is under negotiation is who gets the revenues, who operates the venue and who pays for project cost overruns, if any. Glendale invested in a sport that has no support, and a league that is dependent on gate revenues. Dumb. Neither applies in Edmonton. Glendales actions are analogous to Edmonton investing $400 million in a soccer stadium. There is unquestionabaly a renaissance in downtown Edmonton. Recent years have seen landmark buildings like Grant MacEwan, city Hall, the Winspear, Churchill Square,the cool new Alberta Art Gallery,Epcor Centre,new highrises just announced in Chinatown and of course the $300 million Provincial Musueum nearby. All are tied into the LRT, as will the arena district. The area immediately south of the arena district ahs already seen plenty of new condo contruction, lofts,restaurants, the market on 104th st, etc etc etc. This project will bring much more of the same.Recall that people blasted the province for building Grant MacEwan on derelict railroad land(right next to the arena site, the province and city said it would be the centerpiece of revitilization of a dead zone in downtown. And..... it did and still does. Same-smae here. In 15 years the area bounded by 97th to 124th streets, and the river to 107th ave has exploded with development. I think this project will bring plenty more action to the north and east sides of that area, where it is most needed.

Long before they get to any constitutional stuff, the NDP have to make sure that they get money for Quebec. More money. More than they get now.Lots more. That is why they were elected in great numbers in the province. Time to deliver, no excuses or rhetoric will suffice. Poor Jacques. I wonder if Harper is tempted to give them a few cookies, just to scupper the NDP in the ROC?

There are simply no facts in that statement.Please try again.