Highways are crumbling in Saskatchewan with no real plan to stop that from continuing, coming from the government. They are retreating from maintaining our network of transportation. Where is their desire to serve rural residents, and to help generate the wealth rural areas bring to the province?
-Tourism
-Manufacturing
-Export/Import
-Agriculture
Every industry you can think of needs roads, and gavel roads for cars just doesn’t cut it. Hopefully Premier Calvert wakes up on his bus ride this Summer and realizes that he has to put money into rural Saskatchewan, NOW. But after so many years of him sleeping at the wheel of government, I hold no high hopes.
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maryjane | 26-Jun-06 at 12:08 pm | Permalink
The government IS putting money into rural SK. Unfortunately, instead of putting those dollars into constuctive areas such as highways, the NDP are pissing billions away in an attempt to placate the insatiable demands of the farm subsidy lobby.
maryjane | 26-Jun-06 at 3:21 pm | Permalink
BTW, There’s been a whole lot of bitching about the state of the roads in this province, but I’ve heard little in the way of offering solutions on how any new spending would be paid for.
For instance, if ag spending (5.57% of the budget in SK) were at the Canadian provincial average (1.75%), $270 million would be free to devote to highway spending. That would about double the budget for the Dept. of Highways.
So there’s my solution. Fair, simple and would get the job done. So what you got Saskboy, besides the usual whining/
Brent | 26-Jun-06 at 5:40 pm | Permalink
Correct me if I am wrong, I thought the tax we pay on motoer vehicle fuel(aside from the pst and gst) was to be used to maintain our highways.
Considering the cost of fuel and the amount used there should be plenty to go around.
If the taxes collected on gasoline/diesel were allocated for the intended purpose I don’t think there would be a problem. Sin taxes on booze, tobacco and gambling are obviously not going 100% towards health care either.
It seems that all the taxes collected go into 1 big pot that is used for self serving political ends to soothe whichever interest group is making the most noise at that given time.
Does anyone have a breakdown on how much gas tax is collected and what proportion is actually spent on maintining our highways?
It is pointless to argue about what percentage of the budget is spent on what service without knowing how much each tax contributes to the budget.
maryjane | 26-Jun-06 at 7:26 pm | Permalink
Brent…According to the CTF, for 2002-’03, fuel tax revenue was $357.7 million, licensing fees amounted to $116.9 million for a total of $474.6 million.
Total provincial transportation spending in 2002-’03 was 300.3 million.
http://www.taxpayer.com/pdfGasTaxSpending&Revenues2002.pdf
But you’ve got it a little backwards. Not every tax is designated, nor does every budgetary designation have it’s own tax. There is no farm subsidy tax. Income taxes are not designated. Nor are designated taxes desirable. They would prove to be unbelievably cumbersome.
If you are going to designate every dime of fuel tax and licensing revenue to transportation spending then there will be a shortfall in some other area.
I think every one can agree more resources have to be put into highway spending. It is my opinion that those resources should come out of Ag subsidy spending. Since 1.18% of SK GDP is devoted to ag spending compared to .39% of GDP in the USA, I think we have the room.
Until the small dead whingers can put something on the table, their bitching and finger pointing is just so much blather.
themusicgod1 | 27-Jun-06 at 12:24 am | Permalink
the highways are crumbling oh noes!
two things:
1) Where is the oil going to come from? We can’t keep paving these roads. Sucks, but it’s going to happen sooner or later and it’ll happen sooner if we’re a ‘have not’ province, unlike Alberta, who can spend their short-term windfall 2700$ now on roads if they want, but in the end they’ll end up like us.
2) Where is the money coming from? Our province is in debt, the NDP has been paying it off, afaik, but they havn’t been doing a very good job. Way better then their main competitor party could possibly do, but still mostly pathetic. Especially since like 25% of the province isn’t going to be able to afford taxes to pay for it anyway, it’s something to consider.
-Tourism
Fuck Tourism. Tourism is for places who’s occupants are too stupid to do anything useful with their lives. Nevermind the sexual slavery bits. Let tourists go to Amsterdam or Thailand if they want hookers or BC if they want pot.
Why is rural saskatchewan so important though? Why do people bother living out there, if it’s so clearly stacked against you? It’s obvious food isn’t the issue, otherwise farmers would be able to make a decent living outside of large corporate owned farms perhaps. Move them the hell out of there.
themusicgod1 | 27-Jun-06 at 12:28 am | Permalink
maryjane:
Comparing saskatchewan to the US makes your position look absurd, try another, more realistic example.
maryjane | 27-Jun-06 at 5:22 am | Permalink
Absurd in what way? The US is held up as one of the most heavily subsidized jurisdictions on the planet. The comparison demonstates the fiscal burden that ag subsidies place upon SK. The Canadian provincial average happens to be .40% of GDP so the same rules apply.
Brent | 27-Jun-06 at 3:29 pm | Permalink
Don’t hold back musicdog,, tell us what you really think. Like food just comes from the Safeway down the block. If you took all the farmers out of Canada where would they go. Next you would bitch that they shouldn’t be on welfare or social assistance. If we had to import all of our food or were at the mercy of big business we would be in deep trouble.
Tourism puts over 1 billion in revenue into this province and provides a hell of a lot of jobs. What is it you do to sustain yourself? What sort of contribution does your job or business sector make to the well being of this province.
themusicgod1 | 27-Jun-06 at 9:49 pm | Permalink
Food for me does comes from safeway(since I refuse to cross picket lines, and don’t agree with general food’s policy of searching my bags). Safeway gets the food from their suppliers, who in turn get it from their suppliers, etc, until it eventually comes from a farmer, or whatever the hell produces that stuff they put in KD and ichiban noodles(I have my doubts that a farmer was ever involved in either of those products, but I digress). Farming in Canada right now is less profitable than it was at the worst points of the great depression; and Saskatchewan is following the rational path in this case–farmers are leaving the countryside and the cities are growing. It’s happening a little slower than you’d think would make sense, but it is happening. I’m not saying that farmers *should* be working for that much, but they are currently, so why prolong their suffering by giving them the apperance of a stable wellbeing through subsidy?
By the way, if you think that we *aren’t* existing on the whim of big business, we *are* in big trouble. How many corporations control the entire food supply in Canada right now?
In the meanwhile, Brent, you are totally misreading me. I’m not at all in favour of kicking or even suggesting anyone off welfare, former farmers included; automation means less jobs, and more people our society can afford to support. I would like very much if they did something satisfying and productive with their time but if farmers want to just sit around and be volunteer tourist guides or drink beer and get into trouble or something (although with today’s welfare I’m not sure exactly how much beer that would be) I don’t really care.
Tourism puts over 1 billion into the province, in effect wasting possibly hundreds of billions of potential man-hours of effort and capital resources.
I’m a student, as is, and web developer. I don’t quite break even yet, but I do write music. I’d like to make a meaningful contribution to the province, but so long as time-wasting slave-fetish service jobs (including tourist stuff) are all that I’m roughly qualified for(excluding my feild of study of course, where there are no jobs), I’m going to find a hard time doing so.
themusicgod1 | 27-Jun-06 at 10:52 pm | Permalink
Thinking back on it
I’ll grant you that my current workplace isn’t much better than tourism, but there is a crucial difference in that I’m not funded by taxpayer dollars. I have loans, but most of my life is built from my hard work.
Saskboy | 28-Jun-06 at 9:22 pm | Permalink
Maryjane, Themusicgod, your world without rural Sask would be a sad one indeed, but it’s the one that General Foods is working toward. I hope you like having your bag searched in the government “supplied” grocery stores of the future.
And see my highways plan from a few weeks back, don’t tell me I’ve done nothing but whine. In just a few minutes thought, I came up with a plan of action that would have been better than the nothing the NDP has done, which has left us with… nothing good. Themusicgod’s point about roads running out of oil is a fair one - that’s why trains are part of MY plan. Q. Why aren’t they part of the NDP plan? A. Because their planners don’t have common sense in mind.
maryjane | 29-Jun-06 at 10:16 pm | Permalink
Why do you make the assumption that rural SK would disappear if farm subsidies were reduced to an affordable level ( the provincial average) ?
It would be different, but it would be based on a real economy, not the unsustainable, robbing Peter to pay Paul false economy, with it’s attendant inequity, that you want to maintain.
As for your “plan”, you haven’t costed a dime of it. You can pipe dream till the cows come home, but how ya going to pay for it?
jen&sarah | 25-Sep-06 at 1:26 pm | Permalink
get a life guys…
Saskboy | 25-Sep-06 at 1:43 pm | Permalink
Jen&Sarah,
Get a constructive thought together, and try adding to the discussion.
jen&sarah | 26-Sep-06 at 8:13 pm | Permalink
seriously, get a life. we are both extensively researching stuff like this, but this is not a constructive conversation with substance…this is a beakfest! when you all have something about the issue to contribute thats fine, until then shut up and stop personally attacking eachother!
Saskboy | 26-Sep-06 at 8:33 pm | Permalink
Maryjane “Why do you make the assumption that rural SK would disappear if farm subsidies were reduced to an affordable level ( the provincial average) ?
It would be different, but it would be based on a real economy,”
Real economies include subsidies, it’s just the way the world works Maryjane. The land in rural SK wouldn’t go anywhere of course, but how it’s managed, and who owns it would change for the worse, and one only need to look at rural SK to see that depressing change happening everywhere.
==
Jen&Sarah, seriously try constructively adding to the discussion instead of telling people to shut up! Since you’ve done “extensive research” you ought to be able to add more than “shut up”. And you don’t understand what a personal attack is. If I called you a poppypants doodoo head, that’s a personal attack. Saying that Maryjane’s ideas for rural Sask. would lead the province into a feudal darkage, isn’t a personal attack.
jen&sarah | 27-Sep-06 at 5:39 pm | Permalink
Alrighty then. Here it is. The roads are in terrible condition. They need to be fixed. However the subsidies need to stay because without them we have no farmers and then inventially no food. What we don’t need are stupid centennial celebrations everysecond day of the year which does nothing but annoy Sask citizens. Also, why do we need stupid commercials about Sask? They do nothing consturctive.
Happy now?
Saskboy | 27-Sep-06 at 8:04 pm | Permalink
Happier, yeah. Aside from the spelling, there’s nothing wrong with an opinion like that. I don’t think we have to worry about another centennial celebration for another 51 years. And commercials played in other provinces make sense given our flagging reputation and declining population.
jen&sarah | 27-Sep-06 at 11:12 pm | Permalink
I meant commercials played in Sk about Sk. That is pretty stupid considering we’re all aready here…. they make me want to leave!
Saskboy | 27-Sep-06 at 11:38 pm | Permalink
I don’t mind them showing them occasionally so we see what they look like, but you’re right that it’s senseless to advertise here otherwise.