Class

Yesterday in Community Engagement I found out about a fund that the federal government has set up to assist municipalities in creating a plan for sustainable growth. The source of the funding is the gasoline tax and it seems sensible to use this as a source of revenue. This stems from  the fact that much of our unsustainable behavior stems from the low cost of gasoline. The tax alone will help to encourage more sustainable behavior and when the money is used to plan for sustainability its impact is increased.

The part that I find odd about this whole program is that the federal government has leapfrogged the provincial governments. This is not overly surprising as the federal and provincial governments have an on-going pissing contest. The reason that the program seems odd is the fact that it encourages sustainability and community engagement and yet the federal government can't even work together with the provincial governments. This isn't to say that I believe the program won't work. In fact I believe quite the contrary, that this program is an exceptional idea and will have a large influence on how municipalities run. I just find it quite entertaining that the government is using the "do what I say, not what I do" approach. Anyway that's it for this post and I hope that this program is as successful as I hope it will be.