tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34798599.post4836251941967745834..comments2023-11-14T11:44:10.396-05:00Comments on The Legion of Decency: The Lost Highwayjimhenshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07815834271470133872noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34798599.post-54381162578518066322009-07-28T15:03:57.085-04:002009-07-28T15:03:57.085-04:00Hi Jim:
First of all,I totally agree wi...Hi Jim: <br /> First of all,I totally agree with you that Hwy 32 is a disgrace and a pot hole hell. I 'd like to offer my analysis on how it ended up that way.<br /> In order to comprehend 32's deplorable state we must go all the way back to the mid 1980's .Believe it or not, the rule of Brian Mulroney and to a lesser extent then Premier Grant Devine. Both got the ball rolling down the Highway.Our current state of our highways demise was hatched in the boardroom of CP then ratified around the two respective cabinet tables. Two words describe the root problem of all the Hwy 32's in Saskatchewan.<br /> The " Crow Rate."<br /> Two of the most highly charged political terms of the 1980's. The Crow Rate ,1897, a subsidy to farmers for the guaranteed fixed rail rate to haul the grain to the hungry B C ports for export. In good years paying a fixed rate was a bargain, however in bad times the Crow Rate cost farmers huge dollars when the price of the commodities plummeted, yet the Crow Rate remained the same .Well then along comes Brian Mulroney, the Montreal Lawyer and through legislation changes the Crow Rate and "frees' up the Railroad to do as they may." The immediate consequence was that CP, and CN abandoned whole stretches of Sask rail lines, which started rural depopulation. Elevator closes, hospital amalgamates 30 miles away, then the Post office is gone..School, the Grocer.....bang//gone ! So much so, that in 26 years 1981 to 2005, our home quarter farm families went from 82,.000 to 46,000. .For instance in the federal Riding of Cypress Hills Grassland, the area encompassing the south west of the province, there were 67 thousand inhabitants in 2001, by the census in 2006 the population had dropped a stunning 10% to 61,000<br /> More importantly, no elevators meant that the billions of tonnes of grain had to be hauled anywhere from 20 to 100 miles to centralized elevators via trucks. They are really mini truck trains, two or three Super B's trailers loaded with extremely heavy grains. Saskatchewan has more miles of roads than any other province in Canada. This sudden impact by dumping the short haul on the gumbo highways of the province was disastrous for the infrastructure.It collapsed all over the province. Combined debt under the Devine Conservatives ballooned from no debt to 14.5 billion dollars between 1982 and 1991. Devines' government had no money to fix the roads, yet they voted to eliminate the Crow Rate.<br /> Over the next 16 years, the people of Sask were taxed to pay down this huge debt (3 million dollars a day to service the debt interest alone). That amount was 5 times the highway repair budget, plus in the 80's Devine had privatized the Highways department and sold the equipment. Even after 17 years the debt still sits at 5 billion. Only recently has there been Boom times in Sask. This was due to a managed economy . The farmers and rural communities voted to eliminate the Crow Rate...they thought they would be rewarded with free enterprise riches. Some were, the large corporate farmers, but most were sold at auction or bankruptcy sales and the people left...for Alberta. Yes the towns are still there, but the people on the farm are gone!. Fixing roads was not used a s political punishment. This no doubt enraged rural folks , yet they still refuse to understand that their voting actions in the 80's, only gave them consequences, not rewards. The consequence is shit holes like Hwy 32 ! At the height of denial, the rural folks continue to blame the NDP,.... for their self induced plight. It's over in rural Saskatchewan and by 2020 there will only be 33 thousand home quarter farms, a population drop of 200 thousand people in rural Sask since 1986. No population, no services..... sadly I must add.<br /> joel, <br />We think, Therefore We are!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com