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 probably would rejoin within 20 km.
The softness of the ride, and the quietness of the road, I think is something everyone who drives appreciates.
The value of the stimulus money being spent by the federal government often has been questioned. Its value also is being questioned in the United States. Yet as I drove to and from Calgary over Thanksgiving weekend, I couldn’t help but marvel at the amount of new pavement that was being put down on the Trans-Canada Highway and on Highway 2 across the northern states.
In Fort Frances, the new library would not have been constructed without 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. Some $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’s 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 on 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, roads, buildings, and other infrastructure projects most often are being built by local contractors or workers from the immediate area where the 8,000 projects are taking place across Canada. Those workers, in turn, are buying clothing, homes, and cars in their communities.
The money is moving through the general economy of Canada.
The cranes that rise above the campus buildings at colleges and universities in Canada shows a commitment to educating our youth—and future youth—for the new technologies and services 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 grandchildren will use the roads, bridges, libraries, colleges, and universities.
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