Watson gets it right, while McGuinty gets it wrong

Jim Watson told the Ottawa City Council to get their act together on transit so that the provincial government can release promised funds to them. Jim got that one right.

Ottawa's transit plan is not a plan at all. It is a wish list masquerading as a plan. As is typical of this bunch of expired-best-before-date politicians, not one of them can see the city as a city. They still see it as an assembly of fiefdoms. They each care only what is good for their area and not what is good for the city as a whole.

For example, why do they still maintain that Riverside South needs LRT? To connect the LRT from South Keys to Riverside South means building the line around the airport, without connecting to the airport, a distance of a bunch of kilometres of barren wasteland devoid of LRT commuters. Why not express bus the Riverside South folks to Barrhaven (via the proposed Strandherd Bridge, thus making it part of the transit plan) or to South Keys. Or how about an express bus route along Riverside to feed them to Billings Bridge.

In the meantime, Dalton McGuinty blew the city off with his refusal to grant any special funding or taxing power to the city to address the rebuilding of the rapidly deteriorating municipal infrastructure. Is it going to take the collapse of a bridge or two to clear the view toward the problem?

Psst, Dalton. I have a suggestion for you. Cut the PST by 3% and give the right to raise taxes to the cities. You will look like a god when compared to PM Harper who only cut the GST by 2%. Then tell the cities that they are on their own for municipal infrastructure. If they want it, they pay for it.

Running a city, a province or, for that matter, a country is not rocket science. You look after the basic needs of the country, the basic needs of the people and the infrastructure needed to support the country and the people. It only gets complex when the politicians begin to play their silly games.

My consulting bills will be on their way to the city and the province next week!