Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigtime
Would comparing McIver to Duerr be a fair statement? Sure we'd save some money but pretty much nothing significant would be moving forward?
Edit: I guess we should move this talk to the election 2010 thread.
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I think people forget how much was done during the Duerr days before the city had any capital funding at all from other levels of government. Today the city gets just over $600 million dollars a year in transfers from Federal Gas Tax, Provincial Gas Tax, MSI, and GST offseting.
Duerr secured a big win when he was able to get an agreement that was the first direct no strings transfer of money to a municipality. It set a huge precedent nation wide. On top of that, he was able to saddle the province with Deerfoot and the ring road, instead of just taking the money to implement ourselves.
During the later Duerr years we started to extend the LRT again, and build interchanges. The generational upgrade to the watertreatment system begun.
Duerr was at least honest about his positions, and didn't double talk. When he held taxes low, he actually held them low over the objections of the cities major departments: roads, emergency services and transit. He didn't try to fake it that we could have both low taxes and Cadillac services.
McIvor is like a fire wih all light and no heat. Not really useful except as a symbol.