[Whoaccio]

Close the money hole!

 

[afransen]

I'm not suggesting it as a strategy for this recession--it's already far too late. But trying to time transit projects with downturns would be good policy, and ought to be feasible. The problem is that governments tend to be flush with cash during booms, but are hesitant to invest in subway/Pearson reconstruction-scale infrastructure projects as they are inflationary and tend to go over-budget and be late.

Given that we have downturns every 5 years or so (if measured by a series of rate cuts by the BoC), it would put us out much to try to gear large infrastructure projects to be countercyclical.

 

[kEiThZ]

I'm not suggesting it as a strategy for this recession--it's already far too late. But trying to time transit projects with downturns would be good policy, and ought to be feasible. The problem is that governments tend to be flush with cash during booms, but are hesitant to invest in subway/Pearson reconstruction-scale infrastructure projects as they are inflationary and tend to go over-budget and be late.

Given that we have downturns every 5 years or so (if measured by a series of rate cuts by the BoC), it would put us out much to try to gear large infrastructure projects to be countercyclical.

Fair suggestion. The problem here is inter-governmental relations and planning. Municipalities are typically the least efficient and effective level of government and the one we most depend on for infrastructure. Truly a bad match. Yet, they would be the ones who would have to be ready with EAs done and catalogues of all their infrastructure and states of repairs, etc. when the time comes to hand out funds. I am willing to bet that there isn't a single municipality in this country that has catalogued all its infrastructure and their states of repair.

Hence, my suggestion that if we need to add fiscal stimulus instead of simply using the economic turmoil as an excuse to build municipal infrastructure, than its best to tackle those projects that can be commenced quickly. Remember the goal here is stimulus, not municipal infrastructure expansion per se.

 

[Observer Walt]

^ Agreed; we need a quick jolt that will get the economy functioning at a higher level within the next few months, not two or three years down the road following extensive engineering, EAs, etc.

Toronto has a large number of broken water mains every winter. Some of these mains apparently are 75 years old or more. Let's start replacing them at a faster pace.

Toronto also has a lot of old school buildings, needing rehabbing. Much as I have a low opinion of the Toronto school board, this is another area where money could be put to work fairly quickly, bearing real results. This could probably be extended to university buildings, as already suggested above.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The 1933 wing of the ROM, built during the Depression, was deliberately far more labour intensive to build - excavating the site using picks and shovels and horse-drawn wagons for instance - than the 1914 wing. The Ontario government of the day specified that as many of the construction materials as possible be sourced in Ontario. The construction employed considerably more of a workforce - artists and craftsmen to design and carve the sculptural details on the building, two types of limestone cladding to be extracted from Ontario quarries, various kinds of marble quarried and shipped from Bancroft for the Rotunda and stairs, etc. - than the earlier wing, which used moulded terracotta details and brick.