Quote:
Originally Posted by Bolano
I find Lukaszuk's dismissal of Mandel's speech extremely offensive:
“It’s lacking in leadership and is unlike what I would expect from Mayor Mandel,” Mr. Lukaszuk said of the speech in an interview with The Globe and Mail. He argued that Mr. Mandel is “without a question” primarily upset about the province’s refusal to commit funds to a new National Hockey League arena. The mayor’s “very ill-informed” objection to university funding cuts “is another story,” Mr. Lukaszuk said.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/nati...ies-short-term-thinking/article10708935/ |
as do i, as much as i like thomas. the following was sent last week, well before the mayor's address. on this one the mayor is right and thomas is wrong.
"I cannot express my surprise and my displeasure in regard to the current budget cuts imposed on the University of Alberta strongly enough.
I cannot believe our economy in the Province of Alberta is insufficiently strong enough to support infrastructure and arts and education investment in our future - by all accounts we have one of the strongest and most stable economies in the world. If we cannot invest in those very things our futures rely on, what does that say about our confidence in our own abilities and our own futures to take on a proper role in the world and to deliver on those things the role requires?
If the Province of Alberta needs to increase its revenue stream in order to maintain appropriate levels of investment in those three pillars of our future, then I would expect my government to display the leadership and fortitude to do exactly that instead of insisting that it meet election promises and political posturing by implementing inappropriate austerity measures.
Raise our taxes if need be – we’re not children that don’t understand that government doesn’t create money from thin air.
Raise our royalties if need be (an initiative that should have been implemented when first proposed as far as I’m concerned and which would have kept us from where we are today).
Implement a 2% sales tax if need be (and make that a direct flow through to municipalities so they have long term stable funding and you can maintain it isn’t a new provincial tax even though it will allow you to eliminate many of the grants and other programs now funded from general revenue and allow those monies to be reallocated elsewhere).
We will always have a cyclical economy in the Province of Alberta as long as we are dependent on resource revenues – over the past century we seem to have simply managed to move from one primary resource to another and we need to break that cycle. Until we do that, our cycles will simply by amplified by the cycles imposed on us by the larger Canadian, North American and world markets we need to compete in for capital – human capital as well as financial capital, both of which are becoming increasingly more mobile.
Reducing funding for those very things that are most necessary for us to compete successfully for those limited human and financial resources would be a huge step backwards in what we have always presented as the Alberta Advantage. The Alberta Advantage was never really about being the cheapest place to be – it was about being the most attractive place to be. The media often confuses those two things because they get mixed messages but government should know better and should conduct itself accordingly – something that does not appear to happening here. We need to continue to make Alberta more attractive, not less.
I would urge you to do whatever is appropriate to correct this before irreparable harm takes hold and I know when I say that, that it means spending more I cannot express my surprise and my displeasure in regard to the current budget cuts imposed on the University of Alberta strongly enough.
I cannot believe our economy in the Province of Alberta is insufficiently strong enough to support infrastructure and arts and education investment in our future - by all accounts we have one of the strongest and most stable economies in the world. If we cannot invest in those very things our futures rely on, what does that say about our confidence in our own abilities and our own futures to take on a proper role in the world and to deliver on those things the role requires?
If the Province of Alberta needs to increase its revenue stream in order to maintain appropriate levels of investment in those three pillars of our future, then I would expect my government to display the leadership and fortitude to do exactly that instead of insisting that it meet election promises and political posturing by implementing inappropriate austerity measures.
Raise our taxes if need be – we’re not children that don’t understand that government doesn’t create money from thin air.
Raise our royalties if need be (an initiative that should have been implemented when first proposed as far as I’m concerned and which would have kept us from where we are today).
Implement a 2% sales tax if need be (and make that a direct flow through to municipalities so they have long term stable funding and you can maintain it isn’t a new provincial tax even though it will allow you to eliminate many of the grants and other programs now funded from general revenue and allow those monies to be reallocated elsewhere).
We will always have a cyclical economy in the Province of Alberta as long as we are dependent on resource revenues – over the past century we seem to have simply managed to move from one primary resource to another and we need to break that cycle. Until we do that, our cycles will simply by amplified by the cycles imposed on us by the larger Canadian, North American and world markets we need to compete in for capital – human capital as well as financial capital, both of which are becoming increasingly more mobile.
Reducing funding for those very things that are most necessary for us to compete successfully for those limited human and financial resources would be a huge step backwards in what we have always presented as the Alberta Advantage. The Alberta Advantage was never really about being the cheapest place to be – it was about being the most attractive place to be. The media often confuses those two things because they get mixed messages but government should know better and should conduct itself accordingly – something that does not appear to happening here. We need to continue to make Alberta more attractive, not less.
I would urge you to do whatever is appropriate to correct this before irreparable harm takes hold and I know when I say that, that it means spending more money in some areas, not less.
Sincerely,
Ken"
Prev
Linear Mode
