Well, that was easy wasn't it? A bit like signing for a big credit card purchase. Nothing to it. Until the statement arrives and has to be paid.
In one fell swoop, we racked up $85 billion in debt with a promise to pay it all back with interest in five years, and after that to give ourselves a bonus from surplus funds earned while were paying back the borrowed billions.
Amazing legerdemain and quite unbelievable. But that's what the suits in Ottawa tell us: Over the next five years, the economy will improve so strongly that budgets will be back with surpluses large enough to pay off the $85-billion debt without tax increases.
Sure, nothing to it.
Notice how reluctant government politicians were to voice that dreadful "debt" word? Lightly tripping from their tongues instead comes "a deficit position," which sounds much gentler than "being in debt" but doesn't change the fact that debt by any other name remains debt.
Another question: How come it has taken so long to address a problem governments have known about for years? All levels of government knew that roads, bridges, sewer and water systems and public buildings, from schools to libraries to hospitals, and recreation facilities were wearing -- or in many cases already worn -- out. In those years, Ottawa and British Columbia boasted surplus budgets -- and let essential infrastructure fall apart. Now we're broke and are about to become even more so as we borrow billions to fix what we should have fixed before the last century ended.
For years, The Federation of 91原创 Municipalities has warned that infrastructure in Canada is approaching collapse. The week before the budget announcements Greater Victoria municipalities reiterated their oft-stated concerns about long-neglected essential sewer and water services.
The FCM has estimated cross-country infrastructure rehab costs at a minimum of $123 billion "to stave off collapse." The feds' promise to toss $12 billion into the pot helps, but obviously isn't enough.
How did we get into this mess? Was it lack of leadership at all levels of government? Or was the enemy the same one that long forgotten comic strip character Pogo found when he went looking for the causes of dire events. He reported "we have seen the enemy and he is us."
His creator Walt Kelly later wrote a pocket book entitled We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us and it doesn't really matter which version -- "seen" or "met" -- is preferred, the true enemy remains the same.
National and local infrastructure problems are the joint creation of fearful governments and citizens like me who insist on the best of public services but scream in protest when taxed to pay for maintenance. And now the problem caused by decades of government indecision and taxpayer parsimony is so huge that $12 billion won't even nibble the edges.
In the middle of January, the city of Victoria reported to its shareholders -- of which I am one -- that roads, sewers and water lines were nearing the collapse point. The sub-headline in the Times 91原创 read: "Cost to fix roads, sewers, and water lines would be more than $20.7 million." The story informed readers the $20 million-plus was just for starters -- and was twice as much as city council had budgeted for infrastructure repair and renewal.
The story also noted that the $20 million covered just basic stuff and did not include the Blue Bridge that screws up traffic every time it's hoisted to let a boat skim beneath it. Taxpayers were reminded that the Johnson Street Bridge, built in 1924, the year after I ventured into this trembling world, was nearing the end of its service life. I know the feeling.
The average life span -- if you'll pardon the pun -- for a bridge built more than 20 years ago is 50 years. Modern technology and improved materials have expanded that life span but even so the newest bridge in B.C. -- the William R. Bennett Bridge at Kelowna -- has a life span of only 75 years, or 10 years less than Johnson Street has existed.
The Bennett Bridge cost $144.5 million. No firm costs yet to replace the Blue Bridge but multiply by at least three. In the meantime, under provincial government edict, we press on with a billion-dollar sewage disposal system we don't really need.
And we have only ourselves to blame and only our children to pay the bill.
