As anyone with an interest will already know, the Quebec budget is out and the deficit is rising. Health and education are the watchwords, but I’m looking in vain for any piece that looks specifically at what the budget is doing, or not doing, for Montreal.
CTV has a condensed budget highlights and La Presse a ce qu’il faut savoir.
The SPVM’s bomb disposal robot is getting old and the force wants the funding to replace it. A new one comes close to $300K and isn’t exactly delivered by Amazon Prime.
So, they have an accountant who does the CCA calculation for both the city’s budget and the taxes, which should have indicated the sums that would need to be put away for a future purchase and therefore part of the police budget. But we are supposed to believe that SUDDENLY they discovered that they will need to replace an expensive piece of equipment and they have budgeted for this over the years?
In the real world, people get fired for not tracking the need for future required equipment. So… who’s responsibility was this for keeping in the budget? Or did someone MAGICALLY think that the machinery would last forever?
Quebec has a serious issue with the “last forever” mindset. I’ve never lived anywhere else, so I don’t know whether this is a general human frailty, or a frailty of western civilization, or if it’s just us. But I think in Quebec it happened in a big way with the Quiet Revolution, and an attitude that came out of the satisfaction that big modernizations had been made in a short time, so that nobody wanted to dampen the excitement by asking what measures had been put in place for upkeep and maintenance.
So we built a metro, and we built things like the original Turcot and Champlain bridge and the Metropolitan, forgetting that concrete doesn’t last forever, and in a few decades these structures would need replacement or at least serious shoring up. We did it! Don’t be a party pooper by bringing up engineering calculations about lifespan!
And of course, politicians in general seldom look past the next election. If you’re in power, and you’re getting kudos for providing some new feature, you’re not worrying whether it will still work once you’re retired or dead.
I think the attitude has been generalized here. So the SPVM buys a robot, it gets a bit of press, it works properly and some guys in the force actually know how to operate it. That’s set, then. We have a robot, although we don’t really have any bombs for it to dispose of – but fine. And now the robot’s getting sad and old, but nobody has thought about including a budget item to replace it when it wears out. We have a robot! Shut up and drink your champagne!
Thinking about maintenance is an ownership problem, and I don’t think that Quebec’s thought leaders have truly grasped that mentality. Maybe it’s because Quebec has by far the highest percentage of renters in the country, so many people are used to just calling a landlord to get something fixed.
Any engineer will answer – truthfully – that in most cases skipping one maintenance period probably is not crucial for any item as long as you have been diligent so far and will make sure you do your required maintenance next time around — but it then the accountants argue that if nothing bad happened skipping it for one year, then why not skip for two, or five, or ten, and eventually the engineers and everyone with institution memory quits because they get frustrated arguing with idiots who don’t understand that there are values other than cash, and then bridges fall down and kill people.
The city has repaired that notorious hole on Notre-Dame East with a random piece found in their own garage.
I was kind of hoping they would stuff it with teh police budget becasue as I understand that can expand exponentially in short periods of time and never goes back down.
Hey-o!
A man was stabbed Tuesday morning on Viger near Panet. Taken to hospital, he is not expected to die. Another man was arrested. TVA, as well as CBC radio at noon, suggest it was a dispute between two homeless men.
Quebec wants to build and repair things faster and cheaper – pity this wasn’t stated before that contract to fix the stadium roof.
The FTQ is not entirely thrilled.
How about we build and repair things to last longer?
Nothing in this province lasts that long with winter ice and salt.
Yes, yes, nowhere else has our winters, that’s why you don’t feel the difference when you drive in Vermont or upstate NY or Ontario.
If it’s already shit quality, might as well be cheap, right? /s
In all seriousness, after reading the article, it sounds like the government wants to “partner” with private enterprise. This seems like a recurring theme with the CAQ, though it’s not exclusive to this government. Sounds like short-term gains but with long-term issues. Will all our “public” infrastructure end up being owned by private hands? Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) comes to mind. Where the private companies own the infrastructure while it’s profitable and then dump it on the government when it’s not. An example of this is the A25 bridge to Laval: it’s owned by the private for 31 years (starting 2011) who maintain it and get to take a majority of the toll revenue. Then, it reverts to government ownership. When do bridges start to require maintenance? (This is also an example of previous governments privatizing public infrastructure)
They say that they want to involve construction companies earlier on in the discussions so that they can course correct if they are on the wrong path. Coming from a software development background, this is quite common theme: involve stakeholders to make sure you’re development is answering the right needs, for the right people, in the right way. In theory, this sounds like a good idea. If government proposes a plan to build something and the actual builders come in and say “well, here’s a better way you can accomplish your goal”, sounds like a good thing. In reality, the stakeholders could use their early involvement to co-opt these projects to better suit their own needs (and profits).
What it sounds like to me is that the government, despite its massive budget and spending, does not have the required expertise in-house to determine feasibility (and ACTUAL cost) of construction projects. Maybe THAT is what they should work on.
The flaw in our system is that every government only needs to think as far ahead as getting itself re-elected. They don’t care what happens after 31 years – they’ll probably all be retired by then, so I’m afraid their choice will always be based on that knowledge.
Yeah…they’ll be retired and potentially not even alive after 31 years…
Yes, that’s the problem — making it last longer term is cheaper over time, but more expensive right now, and politicians are all about the saving money now because the costs will come due later. Like businesses, but with even less motivation.
The Missing Children’s Network has released an image of Ariel Jeffrey Kouakou as he might look now. The boy disappeared in the north end exactly six years ago when he was ten years old.
We’re having a Victorian day here in Montreal. TVA says that the square outside Parc metro in Park Extension is infested with rats, and tuberculosis is on the rise in the city.
It’s also infested with pigeons, which people feed (I’ve seen whole loaves of bread tossed out), which ends up feeding the rats. Tons of rats outside Vendôme metro as well, living in the shrubbery.
I have seen rats there before, several years ago. And the last time I was at Parc metro, there were a couple of pigeons inside the building.
There are always pigeons inside the building that goes to the metro. I’ve also seen piles of birdseed in that square. I don’t know why people take it upon themselves to not just feed birds, but feed them incredible amounts of food.
CE, because, aw shucks, birds are cute, and they need our help!
I once spoke to a woman leaving “bird food” on the grass of a local park and explained to her that 1) it’s illegal and 2) it just feeds the rats and squirrels (rats with bushy tails). She was unconvincable. I went home and got a broom and bin and removed all she put. It almost came to blows, lol.
I had to go to the Maxi at Parc metro tonight to pick something up. The pigeons were feasting on full slices of bread as I walked past.
If tuberculosis is second to Covid and Covid is a nothingburger then…
Vive le Montreal Libre 22:51 on 2024-03-12 Permalink
I guess there’d be quite a few news pieces if the budget would actually work for Montreal.
David S 09:37 on 2024-03-13 Permalink
Aaron Derfel has a good thread on Twitter on the healthcare impacts: https://x.com/Aaron_Derfel/status/1767797193535078890?s=20
GC 12:18 on 2024-03-14 Permalink
Thanks for that David S. I tend to think of seniors as my parents’ generation. But, by 2041 I’ll be one of that 25% who are seniors…