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A succinct summary of our leadership capacity


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This pretty much sums it up: http://edmontonjournal.com/tag/malcolm-mayes-editorial-cartoons

As a nation, we have lost track of what butters our bread. The strategy from our leaders: pay for the generous social contract we all love with..... fairy dust.

the toon doesn't include Harper... and his last 10 years with NO pipelines to show even with a majority! Perhaps something else to help diversify that butter spread?

.

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the toon doesn't include Harper... and his last 10 years with NO pipelines to show even with a majority! Perhaps something else to help diversify that butter spread?

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Agreed. Get out your crayons and draw him in if you like.

And diversify by all means. In the meantime, get those massive infrastructure projects running now without a cent of our money involved.

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I hope the new government consults the construction trades before it decides on the format of large infrastructure spending.

The last government had a similar initiative where lots of money became available to "shovel ready" projects. The other conditions were that the feds would prioritize those projects which would be financed 1/3 federal, 1/3 provincial and 1/3 municipal funding.

Municipalities are not allowed to budget a deficit so many did not have the required 1/3 and were turned down. Some provinces were already running large deficits and could not or would not commit to 1/3 of the costs so the projects did not see completion.

Another major problem occurred when the last federal monies were released. There are just a limited number of construction companies which are capable to complete and/or bid on projects. Also, some municipalities deal only with local companies, some provinces will not fund a project built by a firm outside the province and most federal projects have to be done by Canadian firms.

Consequently, when there is a sudden glut of major projects available then there is an abundance of RFP's (Requests For Proposal). A company can submit a legitimate proposal for projects they want and submit outrageous (20% to 50%) inflated proposals for others knowing that some will come in at that price because everybody wants their projects built at the same time - and within the time lines of the special funding. That is what happened on the last occasion.

Also, since governments were desperate to get these projects started, then many contracts were written favorable to the builders - bonuses for achieving timelines but no penalties for slow or shoddy work.

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^^^^^^^^^

That is what happened on the last occasion.

Luckily, none of that applies to this situation.

There are plenty of trades available to build the pipelines, and the money all comes from outside government.

All we need is the spine and the will to say, 'get er done'. And it shall be done, with around $20 billion in direct investment hitting the ground running ASAP. That is a lot of jobs , and many more bucks/jobs in spinoffs. Let us not even consider the benefits over the life of the work required and taxes generated by the product inside the pipelines.

On the sad side, both spine and will are sorely lacking in all levels of govt. We seem to love that in our politicians.

Sunny ways, sunny days!!

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