... maybe an incentive is needed to get able bodied welfare recipients from the south to get up there and start contributing.
Incentive isn't the problem. Infrastructure is.
So they need people up there to build infrastructure?
No, they need money so they can build infrastructure.
That doesn't compute. We are already sending over $3 billion a year up there, so I think it's time to get started, even if it's $1 million projects to begin with, which should draw several thousand more people up there paying taxes.
Incentive isn't the problem. Infrastructure is.
LOL...A million dollar project might bring 10. Roads come first, water/sewer/power is next. These things need to be done before housing can be established for other workers. A million dollars doesn't go far in southern Alberta. It's pocket change in the north.
That's one project, $3 billion would fund 3000 such projects more or less. Water, sewer and power all can use the same right of way as the road, so by the time the road is complete all the services are in place. I don't think it's either money or infrastructure that is the problem, I think it's lack of will and lack of focus by too many people sitting around whining while drawing huge salaries, and fretting about sh*t like their pensions 30 years in the future. How much money is being pissed against the wall flying pregnant women out to such places as Yellowknife and Winnipeg?
We spent a million dollars on a water plant for a town of 300 people in southern Alberta. That's just the water plant. That doesn't include the distribution system or the waste water system. Money is the problem. It's hellish expensive to develop up north and we have a 700 billion dollar debt that we are trying to deal with.