When you flip on the financial taps, the cash doesn’t always spray where it’s needed.
When federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty delivered last week’s financial update, million for water treatment was the only project identified for the Yukon.
After consulting with Ottawa, Premier Dennis Fentie announced five communities would get treatment facilities that would strip naturally occurring arsenic from their water supplies.
The new treatment facilities will benefit Ross River, Haines Junction and Teslin.
But building them in Carcross and Marsh Lake is going to provide less benefit. According to the territory’s environmental health lab, those communities don’t have an arsenic problem.
Tagish and the Takhini River subdivision are better candidates, but, at the moment, they aren’t on the pump-priming list.
The multi-billion-dollar Canadian Bailout Project was hastily assembled—between mid-December and mid-January—to provide some financial grease to a squeaky economy.
It was also done to save Prime Minister Stephen Harper from political ruin.
The problem, of course, is that in this headlong rush to scare up appropriate projects, mistakes are being made.
Here, we’ve already identified two, representing 40 per cent of the stimulus package. Project that across the country, and you see a colossal problem.
There is a global financial crisis. Public spending is widely believed to be a good way to cushion the impact.
But haste makes waste, as they say.
It’s not just about spending money, but spending money wisely that will help cushion Canada’s fall.
The nation’s leaders would be advised to settle down and do a better vetting of possible targets before opening the nozzle and spraying public money around. (Richard Mostyn)