This blog is taking an essay/exam holiday

Budget tomorrow

This blogger waits eagerly.

A new New Burgoyne High Level Bridge?

Niagara Region may, in a few years, have to replace the Burgoyne Bridge which carries St. Paul Street over Twelve Mile Creek. The bridge was opened in 1914 to replace a swing bridge over the Second Welland Canal in the valley below. Before the new bridge, St. Catharines had no fixed link to its train station.

Here’s a Google Map. Here’s a little history.

I hope this new bridge (or a renovation of the current bridge) makes access to downtown a little easier on foot and bike. Today, some of the most uncomfortable places to travel without a car are the bridges across Highway 406. In particular, I’m thinking of Welland/Fourth, Ontario/Westchester, and Geneva. These bridges are straight and wide, and consequently cars race across them as if they are a part of the highway below.

There will be a temptation to add more lanes if a new bridge is built, but I’m not sure that would be necessary. Cars have to move fairly slowly on either side of this bridge because its an old part of the city and the road is narrow. They shouldn’t be encouraged to zoom ahead for the thirty seconds (or so) it takes to cross. Instead, I’d like to see wider sidewalks and the addition of bicycle lanes. West St Catharines is within walking and biking distance of downtown; more people might opt to access downtown this way if it were less unpleasant to cross Twelve Mile Creek.

Take a look at the postcard above. That beautiful bridge was replaced by a harsh concrete overpass over the 406. Right now it is quite impressive to pass under the Burgoyne Bridge on your way into the city; let’s keep it that way, even if it is a new bridge.

Both photos are from the Niagara Falls Public Library. You can find thousands more at their website.

The Sticky Net

I had no idea the requirements for welfare were so draconian.

You don’t have to be sick to visit a doctor, so we don’t believe individuals should be virtually penniless before they qualify for social assistance.

Governments and financial experts have preached for decades about the need to build savings. But, as the welfare rules prove, those very savings come back to hurt low-income people.

A former factory worker may have been able to accumulate a modest amount of savings in an RRSP. Faced with the shock of going to zero income, that person would undoubtedly visit a welfare office. They would be told to come back when they have cashed in their savings and spent the proceeds. This is one of the reasons welfare caseloads do not soar immediately in the onset of economic weakness. But the requirement of destitution also explains in part why the caseloads continue to rise.

Ironically, cashing out the RRSP means the unemployed workers will face a tax bill the following year for which there is no capacity to pay.

Moreover, the individual will have no extra resources to bridge toward a new job which may require relocation and retraining. This individual gets caught up in the social safety web and struggles to get out well after the economy recovers.

The CBC is a product of the nation

Lorne Gunter is not cool with the CBC.

The CBC will never be able to exorcize its left-wing missionary zeal — for global warming, for Islam, for big government, Barack Obama, multiculturalism, public health care, human rights commissions and so on.

It’s not like the CBC exists in a vacuum. It is ultimately controlled by the federal government, which official supports all those things which a few vocal Conservatives hate so much (even Obama).

And it’s not like the federal government exists in a vacuum. Not even Stephen Harper was able to exorcise Ottawa’s “left-wing missionary zeal.” He might not be the loudest cheerleader for Medicare, but he wouldn’t dare challenge it.

Canada is, on the whole, a progressive nation. We elect progressive governments, present Parliament included. From that, we get a progressive public broadcaster.

The CBC is a symptom of our politics, not the cause.

The trouble with confederation

Jeffrey Simpson’s argument that Queens Park is the most important government in the country these days makes me a little sad. Not because I don’t think the Ontario government is competent, but the federal government and the other provinces are, to put it kindly, not being helpful.

One of the weaknesses in Canadian confederation is out-sized power and undersized capacity of the smaller provinces to govern. The small provinces don’t have the capacity to provide services without federal (read: Ontario and Alberta) help, but the big provinces don’t get the support they need from the nation to create wealth in a global economy.

National Post on St Catharines and Art

This is more exciting than seeing an article about Canada in the NY Times! The Post’s  James Cowan wrote yesterday about St Catharines’ gamble on the arts.

It’s nothing too controversial; neither optomistic or pessimistic. Still, it’s good to hear from outside the city on this, and find out how similar ventures have gone in a couple other places.

This Probably Isn’t Good For Ontario

I’m firmly in the McGuinty camp, but I still like John Tory. It is bad that he lost the by-election tonight – bad for himself and for Ontario. I’d rather have a good guy like Tory leading the opposition than some fossil from the Harris years. Luckily (or not), most of them are in Ottawa now, but I still worry about the direction Ontario’s PCs will take when Tory resigns.

Trinketization of Cultures

On one side, there is row after row of wooden stalls (“last chance to buy”) displaying vulgar statues, grotesque clay pigs, and gaudy blankets and, on the other side, vendors on foot hawking identical merchandise. Obviously, what Americans purchase determines what is made and sold. You wonder about the taste of the Americans who buy these eyesores, and if you are of Mexican descent, you feel ashamed for what has befallen the country of your parents.

- Edgar Cota-Torres, “Dispelling the Border Myth: Zonkey Writers and the Black Legend” in Border Transits: Literature and Culture across the Line. (page 60)

Updated 10:25 pm with links.

This is more than worth $60 million