I’ll Keep on TOC’n
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst, Canada West Foundation One of the more enjoyable parts of my work routine over the past year has been the opportunity to pull together the weekly blog article for the Let’s TOC website. So, it is with some sadness that I am posting my last entry. The original [...]
Field of Dreams (Part II)
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst, Canada West Foundation Whenever I point to the Jets Stadium and the establishment of the Vauxhall Baseball Academy as an example of a very successful local and rural infrastructure investment that has yielded some great economic development and social dividends, the response is overwhelmingly positive. Often, it’s outright [...]
The Infrastructure Penny Tax: Can we Talk About the Real Issues Now?
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst, Canada West Foundation The world unfolds in some crazy ways. In January 2011, I addressed Canada’s first national infrastructure summit in Regina. My presentation to delegates was a bit off the cuff. As part of that presentation, I tossed out the idea of a penny tax for infrastructure. [...]
Tracking the Federal Infrastructure Interest
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst, Canada West Foundation The Canada West Foundation has a long history of monitoring government tax and spending trends. Buried inside my computer are several databases of federal, provincial, and municipal finance data that stretch all the way back to 1960. Some fiscal metrics go all the way back [...]
For Whom the Road Tolls
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst, Canada West Foundation Last week, the National Post reported on a study—from the Netherlands of all places—saying that Vancouver’s traffic is the worst in Canada. Vancouver is also the second most congested city out of 26 major centres in North America. News items like this are becoming more [...]
Moose Jaw’s “Lean” Hospital Could Yield “Big” Dividends
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst, Canada West Foundation About a year ago the good citizens of Moose Jaw—Saskatchewan’s fourth largest city—were thrilled by news that a new hospital would be built to replace the city’s aging Union Hospital. The new facility is tagged at $105 million, of which 80% will be paid by [...]
Wanted: An Innovative LTIP
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst, Canada West Foundation After burning up 3,000 kilometers on western Canada’s highways, it feels good to be back in the saddle at Canada West Foundation’s offices in Calgary. In Saskatoon, I took part in a special Municipal Infrastructure Forum hosted by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) following [...]
Different Dimensions of the Penny Tax
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst, Canada West Foundation In late February/early March, Casey Vander Ploeg introduced the idea of a Penny Tax in the “1¢ Solution to a Billion Dollar Problem” series on www.letstoc.ca, igniting much interest around the community. Continuing the conversation, this blog is an expansion of that idea, delving to [...]
2012 Summit
By: Sheila Harmatiuk, Manager of Government Relations, City of Regina Canada’s first ever National Infrastructure Summit (NIS), hosted by the City of Regina in January 2011, was unique in many ways. One reason is that the conference gathered such a wide spectrum of participants from the private, non-profit, and public sectors. The summit attracted hundreds [...]
Technology Boosts Public Transit
By: Casey Vander Ploeg, Senior Policy Analyst, Canada West Foundation In most large cities, public transit boasts a long history, being one of the most visible and vital services provided to citizens. The transit system in Calgary, for example, goes back to 1909 when the Calgary Municipal Railway was established with a dozen electric streetcars. [...]
