New boats, ships, whatever…
Less than four hours ago, the government made an announcement that broke with tradition. It made sense. I’m still trying to recover.
We’re getting some new boats, up here in maple leaf land. Boats, ships; there’s a difference. In this case the important thing is that the $35 billion will be spent at real boat stores. That is, real shipyards. Located on the east and west coasts, rather than halfway up a river. In Mudville, great sadness.
Yes, there have been some wonderful ships produced in Quebec shipyards. The Abegweit (blessed be her name). But that was a long time ago, and the sad reality is that the shipyard in Levis has been on life support for far too long. Taxpayer life support. Remember that oil platform we paid for? Didn’t think so. For this round of bidding, a consortium was created in the hope of scoring another infusion of green. The government didn’t buy in, and for that, I am speechless.
On the same day, the provincial government announced that there will be an investigation of the construction industry. Nothing to do with ships and everything to do with corrupt practices. The request has been floating (think ships) for months, and the premier finally acquiesced (a wonderful word, rarely used in the same sentence with his name). We will learn, little by little, why things that are built locally cost so much more than they should in a realistic world. The leader of the opposition believes that the effort is too little, too late (but he told us she would say that). The rest of us will get our insight into how brown envelopes stuffed with cash make the economy run.
