Moose Jaw Forum

I had a chat with an old friend from school over the weekend - he sits on an RM council - and the topic of no new infrastructure funding came up.
As he is on a council close to Saskatoon he told me that they were really looking forward to additional funding to start widening and rebuilding roads due to the increased traffic on them and now with potash heavier loads.
From what I learnt is that Moose Jaw is not alone in its need for upgrades. The RM here is going to be doing some road work despite the province not being able to chip in but the cost is going to really impact the RM's bottom line.

Its been like that for years.. and Premier Wall has said that there will be no new money for infrastructure repairs of any kind... so I guess he figures that the roads, water or sewer lines aren't all that bad... imagine that...

jay45 wrote:.. Premier Wall has said that there will be no new money for infrastructure repairs of any kind...

Of course not, he pissed all the money away in his first term in office. And what about the money that was rightfully Saskatchewan’s when it comes to equalization payments, that he left sitting on the table with the federal govt, could of repaired or rebuilt a lot of roads with that money.

Did Brad Wall not give this city twenty five million dollars last year? Not that I'm Mr. Wall's biggest fan, far from it...but a large sum of money was given out. If this city elected to not spend it on roads and sewer lines, then shouldn't the blame lay there?
Plus, doesn't this city also receive part of the money from equalization? I thought it did...
The city can't keep depending on government handouts or asking for money for everything that comes up...and they shouldn't depend on raising taxes to cover these costs either.

Last year we got roughly $1,200,000.00 in revenue sharing and guess where it went - Multi-mess!! This year we got another roughly $500,000.00 additional in revenue sharing and guess where it went - Multi-mess!! That is in addition to the original provincial money - $10,000,000.00 - that was given to build this money "Pit", plus we also received Federal money toward Infrastructure that went into the Multi-mess! And now our wind-bag Mayor is whining for more money for Infrastructure!! Mr. Wall should have been less polite with all these "blame-game" Civic Leaders and told them to "GET THEIR FISCAL HOUSES IN ORDER"!!

I can understand the reasoning behind Moose Jaw being disappointed, but what I cannot understand is why do RMs and even Urban Municipalities that have been fiscally prudent and who may not have built anything fancy seem to get punished along with the others?

If you read between the lines of the province's decision it shows fears of a slowing economy and moves toward government austerity. In many ways it is in direct opposition to the message the province has been publically selling.

truth defender wrote:I can understand the reasoning behind Moose Jaw being disappointed, but what I cannot understand is why do RMs and even Urban Municipalities that have been fiscally prudent and who may not have built anything fancy seem to get punished along with the others?

because they are all lined up at the trough together.

Sledge wrote:Last year we got roughly $1,200,000.00 in revenue sharing and guess where it went - Multi-mess!! This year we got another roughly $500,000.00 additional in revenue sharing and guess where it went - Multi-mess!! That is in addition to the original provincial money - $10,000,000.00 - that was given to build this money "Pit", plus we also received Federal money toward Infrastructure that went into the Multi-mess! And now our wind-bag Mayor is whining for more money for Infrastructure!! Mr. Wall should have been less polite with all these "blame-game" Civic Leaders and told them to "GET THEIR FISCAL HOUSES IN ORDER"!!

Well said Sledge.
But, “"GET THEIR FISCAL HOUSES IN ORDER"!!” would that be like, leaving 100s of thousands of dollars laying around in a certain third party account all the while hitting the taxpayer with an unneeded tax increase!