Ottawa is now in its second week of a crippling bus strike and it’s not entirely clear who it is that is negotiating on behalf of the poor schmoes who have to ride the accursed things. Not to mention of course the people who have to pay the exorbitant property taxes to live in one of the worst run cleptocracies in any western nation.
The city of course alleges that it represents it’s inhabitants but every judgment call and pronouncement it has made has been 100% in accordance with the goals of the striking bus drivers.
congestion on Ottawa Streets
The city managed to vote down its own back to work legislation so it would appear to be a feeble and insincere effort to make it look like the city actually wanted to do anything about it but frankly too much regulation is what gave the union so much power in the first place.
Here are some actual solutions to reduce the power of the transit union to dictate life to the inhabitants of Ottawa and for that matter any city in the same position.
1. Allow cars to park at bus stops. This would create tens of thousands of new parking spots instantly alleviating some congestion and encouraging Christmas shopping which i have it on good authority from numerous retail stores is being decimated by this strike. Remember, the average retail store relies on Christmas for 1/3rd of its annual sales. This isn’t to get rich, its to pay the losses for the bad months.
2. Let companies form with small buses that drive up and down the main arteries of a city and charge whatever they want to pick up and drop off. I can imagine that if they didn’t have to pay massive fees for government licenses someone with a small bus or 15 seater van could charge a dollar to take people whatever distance up or down say, Bank St. in Ottawa and make several hundred a day per vehicle while performing a necessary service and gutting the power of the transport union to strike.
3. Allow cars to use the special multi million dollar roads that are specially built for the exclusive use of buses to rapidly move across the city. This would also relieve a massive amount of congestion on the streets and encourage shoppers not to mention all us poor schmucks who have to get to and from work.
In essence, the answer is not more government its less. The people have to wake up to the fact that government is not the solution to all our problems but increasingly is becoming the source of more and more of them.
James Cohen for Girl on the right.
You can see more of James on Right Or Wrong Radio with Emrys Graefe on The Western Standard
www.westernstandard.ca
I deserve torture for this one but if I dont type it out Ill get a headache
I suspect the city of Ottawa is also not in a hurry to settle this, as they are saving so much on bus expenses it will offset the huge overrun on snow removal early 2008, and again now with the snow thye have been getting lately.
; )
[...] Girl On The Right [...]
Also likely true. And I bet its still illegal to drive in bus lanes during peak hours. The city is so broke that they need to raise revenue like its the old west. The Government with its union affiliations are pretty much indistinguishable from organized crime at this point. I would not be surprised to see Larry O’Brien step down soon as he has been rendered ineffective at controlling city council and the wanton waste of tax revenues.
Re: Allow cars to use the special multi million dollar roads that are specially built for the exclusive use of buses to rapidly move across the city.
This came up last time there was a strike in Ottawa and if I recall correctly this could not be done because of legal issues arising from the status of the road, i.e. it wasn’t classified as a public road or something like that.
As it is city council that does all the classifying we can guess as to the real agenda. One of Canada’s best journalists ever, a certain Steve Madely from CFRA radio in Ottawa one morning managed to trap a city manager. He questioned him at length as to his assertion that the city needed to raise taxes to pay for increased fuel costs during Katrina. After the city manager had re stated his claim several ways so as not to be unclear, Madely showed him a contract that he had signed fixing fuel costs for the city for 5 years. In fact the city had no increased fuel costs whatsoever. After having heard the city caught in such a large lie, I tend to have a rather jaundiced eye.
James Cohen for Right Girl