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By Kiely (registered) | Posted June 15, 2010 at 13:37:11
We shouldn't be putting our eggs in any basket we don't control.
We have no control over the airline industry. One big fuel cost spike (or the eventual fuel shortage) and the whole industry could go belly up. Running around throwing our money and effort at things like airports, manufacturing companies, steel mills, etc… is dangerous. We could theoretically do everything "right" in pursuing those types of businesses and we will still have no luck attracting or keeping those businesses due to circumstances beyond our control. An individual city has minimal impact on the future of the airline industry or manufacturing in Canada. We could subsidize, pander, beg and plead for airport investment and manufacturing but global forces can undermine all of it.
The city needs to focus on things it has some control over: maintenance and improvements to current infrastructure, urban renewal, transit, zoning, cleaning up brown fields and submerged sludge piles, actively and aggressively enforcing environmental and emissions laws (instead of allowing our industries to circumvent or seek to soften them). In short, the city needs to concentrate on making a livable city that will attract the PEOPLE businesses want.
Dumping money into costly new infrastructure to woo an industry that has one of the highest bankruptcy rates of any industry and has been in a fiscal crisis for a decade is stupidity in action.
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