Amen! Excellent work to the Bid Committee and the worker bees at City Hall.

I won't hold my breath for any infrastructure other than new stuff. The old infrastructure will still be old after the games.

Good job team!!!!

Canadians and their governments are not being smart with money.

In the last 12 months, total household credit in Canada went up by 102.5 Billion$.

In the last 12 months (gross) government debt in Canada (municipal, provincial, and federal) went up by 116 Billion$

(Generally speaking) there is a case of mass delusion going on.

To put things into perspective, a recent article on the Macleans (magazine) web site entitled "The health care time bomb" said the following:

"In fact, the impact of an aging population has barely begun to be felt: the first of the baby boomers are only just beginning to retire. Even before that demographic shift takes hold, health costs have risen more than seven per cent a year on average for the past decade. In 2009, health spending hit an all-time high of 11.9 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. That’s $183.1 billion, $9.5 billion more than in 2008, or $5,452 per person. Spending is skewed toward the old. In 2007, the latest data broken down by age group, total health spending on those under 64 averaged $1,966 per person. Between age 65 to 69, the average was $5,589. For those 80 and older, the cost soared to $17,469."

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/04/12/the-health-care-time-bomb/

This is going to end very badly folks. Enjoy the party, the hangover is going to be a doozy.


Also the following is taken from a recent article on the North Shore news web site:

Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced Tuesday that British Columbia's deficit for this fiscal year is now expected to come in at $1.4 billion -- $335 million less than when the plan was tabled. That much is good.

But then Hansen went on to invite taxpayers to tell him what to do with the government's newly "available dollars" for next year. Fund new services? Cut taxes? Reduce the debt? This part is outrageous.

It doesn't take an accountant to understand that these dollars are fictitious. The province isn't making more; it's only borrowing less. To treat the difference between the old projected deficit and the new projected deficit as cash is misleading and irresponsible -- doubly so coming from a government that only just repealed its own law making deficits illegal.

Worse, to suggest that this discrepancy could be used to pay down debt crosses the line from ill-advised to ridiculous. Since when can negative funds be used to cut debt?

It's nothing new for a government to use accounting sleight-of-hand to buy votes, but to do so in such a blatant fashion is disrespectful. Any voter with a credit card understands our province's predicament very well. No amount of silly rhetoric is going to change that.

http://www.nsnews.com/news/numbers/3528036/story.html

Something else for all of us to think about while all of this money from the federal and provincial governments is "flowing in" to "assist us" getting things ready for the 2015 Canada Winter Games:

"B.C. judges stay charges due to lack of judges"

A lack of provincial court judges in British Columbia has set off a cry for help from current judges as they throw out charges on everything from traffic violations and drunk driving to cocaine trafficking.
The frustration comes just as some of the toughest drunk-driving legislation in the country takes effect Monday.

In the most recent case to be stayed, Judge Darrell O'Byrne dismissed a speeding ticket for a man who had waited more than 18 months to get to court.

In his ruling O'Byrne, who is also administrative judge for the Cariboo Northeast court district, chastised the provincial government for failing to appoint a judge in the district, even though it knew for over a year judges were retiring.

He said judges have had to impose stays because cases have taken too long.

"The failure of the government to act has now imposed a crisis upon the Cariboo Northeast District," he wrote in the judgment released on the provincial court website last week. "Simply put, without additional appointments, the Cariboo Northeast District no longer has sufficient judicial resources in Prince George to meet the caseload."

O'Byrne noted that cases have been delayed because the number of judges in the province has gone down while caseloads increase.

In 2005 and 2006 there were 143 judges. In 2010, 2011 that number has dropped to 124.5, he pointed out.

The same judge stayed drunk driving charges against a man in May because of lack of "institutional resources."

"No replacements have been appointed despite repeated requests from the chief judge to the attorney general to do so," O'Byrne said in his ruling, referring to the lack of judges.

Also in May, Judge Ronald Webb stayed several drunk driving allegations in Golden, B.C., and a charge of cocaine trafficking against a Cranbrook man.

"Justice delayed is justice denied," he summed up in the ruling staying the trafficking charge against Darren Williams.

"Obviously, two-and-a-half years is too long. The time estimate for the trial is two-and-a half hours," Webb wrote in the May 6 ruling.

On one of the impaired driving cases he stayed, Webb said the accused's trial did not go ahead through no fault of his own, "yet he and others with counsel were expected to pay for their lawyers' time even though their trials didn't proceed. Clearly, this is an unacceptable situation."

Webb said in one ruling that people are ordered to show up for trial dates that are hopelessly overbooked and witnesses are told to attend court and then are told the trial won't go ahead.

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20100919/jusges-shortage-100919/