Thursday, October 23, 2008

FRASER INSTITUTE: ALBERTA ROADS GONE TO POT(HOLES)

If anyone needed convincing that the Alberta infrastructure has gone to potholes under the successive Klein and Stelmach regimes, one need not look further than a recent report from the Fraser Institute.

The right-wing, neocon unthinktank comprised of fanatical deregulation fat cat windbags, issued a report ranking Alberta in 7th place out of the 10 provinces in respect to roads in “good condition.” In fact, the report says that only 63% of Alberta’s roads are in good condition. See: http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/story.html?id=1503efef-f1b6-4ca0-a48c-974d4ecb0df7&p=2

The dismal state of Alberta’s roads were confirmed by an Alberta Transportation spokesman who acknowledged the province was behind in road repair due to insufficient funding, rising construction costs and a shortage of labour and material.

According to the Institute’s study, the top three provinces with roads in good condition are Ontario which is in first place, followed by Nova Scotia and Quebec. See: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/fraser-institute-ontario-has-best/story.aspx?guid=%7BC19C21EE-6F54-48DD-8A7E-755ACAE78DAA%7D&dist=hppr

Given the Institute’s great affection for Ralph Klein, the ex-Premier primarily responsible for the current dilapidated state of all public services and public infrastructure, the province’s ranking would probably be much lower than 7th place, if the study was performed by an institution with a record for objectivity.

5 comments:

Oldschool said...

And of course the liberal stronghold of Ontario is pothole free . . .
In BC we still drive on the TC highway as built in the 60's . . . do you think it has anything to do with 30 years of the federal libs sucking tax dollars out of western Canucks and giving little or nothing back???
If that's the biggest issue on your plate . . . why not move to Ontario . . . the land of the Half-Billion Dollar deficit!!!

Oldschool said...

Daryll . . . I understand they can't get anyone in Albera to work fixing roads . . . they are all getting rich working in the Oil Patch.
Maybe they should advertise in Liberal Ontario!!!

Libforlife said...

Ooh someone doesn't like bad news about the Vaterland. Touchy touchy!
I guess that's what you get for $400 dollar Klein cheques, pot holes.

WesternGrit said...

What are the Fraser "boys" up to? Well, they're hoping for more P3s... Privatize highways in Alberta, charge tolls, and every Albertan will be happy.

Oh... and the "oil patch"? Good luck with that. Sucking hey? Guess no-one read the history of the West? How we conveniently forget...

Darryl Raymaker said...

Old School -

First let me thank ;you for continuing to read my blog. Perhaps you may grasp some new idea yet somehow. Maybe by osmosis.

Secondly, think of this. To the Fraser Institute, the Ontario provincial government is marginally to the right of Cuba. And so to give them first place in good roads, those roads must be fantastic! Probably the best in the world.

Thirdly, why don't you tightwads in lotusland, build and repair use your own money to build your own goddamn roads.

And finally, there are presently being created by the cutbacks in oil sands development as a result of the credit crisis caused by neocons the like of which run the Fraser Institute plenty of potential labour for building or maintaining roads in Alberta, believe me. Alberta is being hit hard.

Libforlife - you are absolutely right about Klein's $400 dollar pathetic bribery of the people of Alberta. The bucks should have been put to use in Health care, infrastructure or education, none of which the dumb and dumber crowd of the Klein years had any time for.

Westerngrit - as I pointed out above, you're right about the oil patch. Life is getting tougher here hourly and will continue for some time to come.

And yeah, the Fatcat deregulators called the Fraser Institute have got to have something like that up their starched sleeves.