You might not expect to have a candidate for the CBRM council talk about the tar ponds in a 2020 campaign, but there's a reason.

I think the tar ponds project gives us insight into how much of an actual effect big infrastructure projects have on our economy—and what to expect with the new ones. I encourage you to watch the video, but here's the key takeaway:

Despite the hundreds of millions invested into cleaning up the tar ponds, even with jobs created for a few years, what was the lasting effect on our economy? 

• Did it slow outmigration?
• Did unemployment rates drop?
• Did taxes on your home or business property drop—becoming more affordable?

Government infrastructure projects can create jobs and spin-off for a few years, but economically they are just a stimulus that props us up for some time.

The politicians are going to repeatedly tell you how expensive the currently slated infrastructure projects are. Keep this in mind:

They are spending your tax dollars. And these projects will act as a stimulus, but will not turn our economy around on their own. They do not represent economic development. Government projects do not represent sustainable economic development.

If you want an example of sustainable growth in private industry, we need only to look at Protocase and their subsidiary 45Drives.

What is my solution?

Of course, we need our tax dollars invested in infrastructure. But we cannot allow our provincial government to make these investments and then rest on their laurels.

We need an increased operating grant (Equalization) to reduce our taxes in the CBRM.

That will create the environment for long-term sustainable economic growth. The best part is that it's much more affordable than these large infrastructure projects. The necessary amount of funding falls well within the provincial surpluses commonly reported.

With the PCs offering $15 Million and the NDP offering $50 Million, all we need is a change of power or for our Liberal MLAs to come through for us and join the other parties in making a deal.

For perspective, to raise $15 Million more on our own, we'd have to build about 2,600 new homes, valued at $250,000 each, in a single year, at our highest tax rates to do it. At our current rate of housing development, that would take 20 to 30 years. And, $15 Million would only reduce our residential tax rates by about 20%.

The CBRM has experienced the kind of economy other parts of Canada only realized could happen when the pandemic hit them. We've been experiencing pandemic-level economic despair for decades. And we need some intervention to prevent our continued decline. Infrastructure projects are not economic development, and the state of our economy after hundreds of millions was spent on the tar ponds clean up shows this to be the reality.

[Authorized by Joe Ward]