04-16-2021, 04:24 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-16-2021, 04:24 PM by danbrotherston.)
(04-16-2021, 04:04 PM)taylortbb Wrote:(04-16-2021, 03:48 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I'd say it's more than slightly...we're in the middle of a global pandemic that has cut air travel to nothing.
It's insane that we are making such a huge investment right now.
Given that we apparently can't afford to provide childcare, I think this is a gross missuse of money.
I don't think it's insane. Ticket sales are making it very clear that there's a huge pent-up demand for air travel. If we suddenly spike to above-2019 levels (which I consider very likely in 2022) there's not going to be capacity at Pearson. This spike in demand is a rare opportunity for new airlines to get off the ground, if we want to ever get YKF to being a large enough self-sustaining airport this is the time to do it.
Every business that 2020 was a bad time for, will likely see a record-setting 2022 as demand swings back the other way.
There's plenty of valid complaints about the childcare decision, but the regional budget isn't zero-sum (taxes can be increased).
"taxes can be increased"...apparently only for the police budget.
But I digress, that's not a bad argument, but it's still a heavy speculation, and not something I think our government should be doing. What ISN'T speculation is that we need more childcare in the region, not maybe in 2024...I mean, TODAY...YESTERDAY even, but we aren't investing in it, in fact, we are cutting it.
Whether you think the airport is a good investment or not, I think it shows our priorities are very poor from our government. If we hadn't just cut our childcare budget to fund our police force, this might not bug me quite as much--although I think I'd still disagree as I do think it's still a high risk investment--but I wouldn't be angry about it.