The BC Ministry of Transportation has recently started a blog, following in the footsteps of others, like, "The Fastlane”, the blog of the US Secretary for Transportation, Ray laHood. One of my favourite recent posts shows the importance of following spring road limits, with these two photos (click on the photos for a link to […]
Tag Archives: government
European Austerity
While North America licks its wounds from the latest financial beating, it seems that things in Europe are just warming up. It’s as though the summer break was just long enough to snap the resolve of the population, France and Belgium both lost their Prime Ministers this weekend and Ireland is in the last convulsions […]
Expectation or Entitlement
In light of the upcoming referendum for the Castlegar Rec Centre Expansion Project, I thought I’d play an audio excerpt from CBC that articulates many of the conflicting circumstances that add complexity to the decisions that governments make regarding money and funding projects. The excerpt, an intro to a CBC Ideas program aired in May […]
High Paying Government Jobs
I work for a small municipality in rural BC and on reading articles like this, I understand the outrage of many Americans toward the bloat and excess of their government structure, particularly when the private sector and individual households are struggling. Only one city employee had a base salary topping $300,000. Nathaniel Ford, executive director […]
Carbon Capture & Storage Viability Questioned
Now why doesn’t this surprise me? The document from Houston University claims that governments wanting to use Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) have overestimated its value and says it would take a reservoir the size of a small US state to hold the CO2 produced by one power station. Previous modelling has hugely underestimated the […]
Castlegar Budget 2010
The City of Castlegar is preparing to pass a budget and five year financial plan that indicates spending on new infrastructure to the Airport lands of approximately $4.2 million for water and $1.6 million for sewer over the next two years. This is money that is coming out of the water and sewer funds respectively […]
The Future of Infrastructure?
We speak in very real terms about the state of infrastructure deficit we find ourselves in as a nation and as municipalities, and scratch our heads as we wonder how we are going to possibly find the money to complete all of the upgrades or renewal required. Charles Hughes Smith, the author of Survival+: Structuring Prosperity for […]
Social Unrest and Monetary Mischief in 2010
How is it that reports like this are not splashed as headlines across the globe? The UK's Telegraph actually published this, (and just before Christmas! How dare they!)… In a sombre report on the outlook for next year, [Moody's,] the credit rating agency raised the prospect that future tax rises and spending cuts could trigger […]