Once again the industry and resource sector should give thanks to the BC taxpayers for this most generous subsidy for them.

Well they need to do something to create jobs. After all 187 million compared to 1.1 billion isn't too bad really.

Of course this is all assuming the Campbell clan wins the election in May.
It is becoming increasingly possible that they may not.
My guess is it would continue, regardless of whether or not Campbell is still captian of the rapidly sinking Liberal ship.

The Liberals have played the people of BC as fools, and I suspect that they will end up paying the price for it.

Lakes and Cam;psites closed, or services reduced, fish farms that threaten our Salmon Industry and sports fishing, increases in things like fishing licences, ICBC insurance, etc;, which increase their revenue, to offset the money lost through tax decreases, no real effort made to solve the beetle kill problem, and of course the Vancouver Winter Olympics and all its attendent problems.

Then of course there is the shortage of doctors, line ups at emergency at hospitals, rampant killing in the streets, and the drug problem. Tazering citizens and police cover ups, and the slap on the wrist mentality for criminals.

The list goes on, and I suggest that even though the alternative sucks, it may be better than these dough heads.

The Sierra road is 173km long. At over a million dollars per km to upgrade an existing road, are they paving it with gold or is it another Liberal boondoggle for their friends?

Herbster, you ever seen the Sierra Road?

Interesting list there Palopu, but pretty darn short compared to the reasons not to elect the NDP. Or elect a house of Bable with no direction as the BCSTV system would pour molassis in to every crack in the economy.

at least they didn't spend it on fast ferries,they are trying to creat jobs.

sorry about the spelling create

I've driven that road many a time. Why do you ask , Yamadoo?

herbster that sounds right 1,000,000.00 per kilo is a current highway budget used by the Alberta gov't.

Too bad the Sierra is not a highway. Its a gravel bush access road, built to somewhat lower standards than the Kluskus.

Thats a lot of money to finance a very destructive industry to the environment.

I wonder if this is where our 'liberal' carbon tax is going?

You bet that's a lot of money to upgrade a road that is used primarily after freeze-up anyway, to bring in heavy equipment and supplies. Last time I looked, frozen roads are pretty much indestructible.

I bet that much money would pay for a two lane PG ring-road to the south and East... linking to a new industrial site outside of the city air-shed.

Imagine the economic potential, and health benefits, as well as quality of life impact that investment would have for PG... but it wouldn't raise the kind of government revenue the lower mainland needs for the Campbell government low fruit resource funded agenda down south....

P.G. is only part of the economic engine of B.C. Oil and gas is the big one because it's on stream. Go up and see those roads before you comment. The Olympics are going to pretty well break the province. We need these roads so the economic engine can keep working. Don't make foolish comments unless you've seen the roads up there.

Faithfulreader- you would be wise to take your own advice and go and look at this road before you foolishly comment. Fort Nelsons' oil and gas exploration season is the winter for a very good reason. The vast majority of the area is poorly drained and black spruce swamp. The roads are generally passable only when frozen, at least as far as heavy equipment such as drill rigs are concerned.
That's why this program is so much baloney. I guarantee that there won't be one additional well drilled because of road "improvements". If the Liberals had half their wits about them, they would axe their carbon tax,and build a natural gas power plant that would stop us from importing coal-fired electricity from Alberta. That would go much farther along to reducing carbon emissions, as well as providing some demand for our natural gas, which we are presently selling to the USA and others at the equivalent of $24 barrel of oil.

I was up there last summer. I think Herbster makes good points about the winter access....

I think a ring road in PG might not produce the immediate tax revenue for government that further oil and gas extraction would, but over a decade it would provide similar revenue, a lot more jobs, and far more effective infrastructure investment for the long term growth of many industries.

IMO the oil and gas industry makes enough money to pay for their own access roads. The forest industry pays for their own roads, and they are far less profitable than oil and gas.

Actually eagle one, the forest industry does not pay for their roads either.
The cost of company forest roads are reduced from the stumpage rate they pay..so the taxpayer picks up the cost as well.

When you look at a map, which is what I suggest these spend happy government people should do...you realise very quickly that the SYD road is in the WRONG PLACE to properly access the infamous Horn River area.
The SYD road has ended up to be the main and very inefficient access because government let the oil and gas industry decide where and how they would locate their own roads.(which amount to hundreds of kms of extensions from the SYD)
After the 187 million dollars are spent it will have done nothing to improve the time it takes to get to the horn river as you can easily exceed the speed limits now.

This road ended up to be about an extra 100kms longer, or about an hour and a half each way than it should have been. That might not seem like much until you realise that a thousand or more workers from mostly Alberta live in these remote camps.

If government people would look at a map of where things actually are located, they would notice that if they spent 187 million (OR LESS)on a NEW road, which directly accessed a very active Horn River area, BC and Fort Nelson would actually receive a benefit from it. People could actually live in Fort Nelson and commute to work..yes right here in BC's horn river.

What is proposed in this politically charged announcement as an improvement to this road is every bit as stupid as the fastcat farce. Embarrassingly stupid.