Contemplating the stimulus

Driving along smooth, quiet, black pavement without any lines painted, my mind wandered to thinking about the rougher stretches of highway that I had left and would probably rejoin within 20km. The softness of the ride, the quietness of the road, I think is something everyone who drives appreciates.
It has often been questioned the value of the stimulus money being spent by the Federal Canadian Government. Even in the United States the value of the stimulus money has been questioned. Yet as I drove to and from Calgary over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, I could help but marvel at the amount of new pavement that was being put down on the Trans Canada Highway and Highway 2 across the northern states.
In Fort Frances, the new library would not have been constructed without the Canada’s Action Plan funds. Now that the stimulus spending is coming to an end in Canada, we can look back and examine the success of the program.
Construction jobs, whether in road and bridge building, or in building schools, universities and hospitals have a long-term impact on the economy.
I can hear someone complaining about the fact that to use and access those funds not only did the federal government borrow money, but so did provinces, cities and towns. $33 billion will have been spent before the projects wind up shared equally between provinces, towns and the federal government. And I can hear the other complaints that all this spending by government has not put many back to work in factories and offices.
The federal government has been chastised for all the Canada Economic Action Plan signage that has preceded these projects, but I wonder if the signs shouldn’t stick around for the next decade. I enjoyed the new pavement on the Trans Canada Highway just as I have enjoyed travelling on the new pavement of Highway 502 and Highway 11 from Rainy River to Thunder Bay.
The money is going a long way to refurbishing our road and bridge network across Canada. Without a great highway system, moving goods and materials across Canada can become a huge economic barrier to doing business. The stimulus funding is indeed a stimulus to the future growth of the Canadian economy.
The bridges, the roads, the buildings and other infrastructure projects are most often being built by local contractors or workers from the immediate area where the 8000 projects are taking place across Canada. Those workers in turn are buying clothing, homes, cars in their communities. The money is moving through the general economy of Canada.
The cranes that rise above the campus buildings in colleges and universities in Canada shows a commitment to educating our youth and future youth for the new technologies and services that we will need to compete in the global economies. That too is well-spent money for the future.
Often the argument is being used that this stimulus will be carried on the backs of future generations. It is true, but in reality our children and grand children will use the roads, bridges.
–Jim Cumming,
Publisher