Editorial: Don’t allow our infrastructure to deteriorate

The worldwide stock market implosion and the start of a recession in North America present a particular challenge to our governments.

With his increased standing in the Commons, Stephen Harper will be tempted to pursue his belief in trickle- down economic policies. We think otherwise. The decreased value of the Canadian dollar, linked to the stun­ning, though cyclical drop in oil and natural gas prices, can only help our challenged manufacturing sector.

But it won’t be enough. Now is the time to revert to much-maligned Keynesian solutions – yes, deficits are bad, but massive unemployment and swollen welfare rolls are worse. We urge the Harper government to massively invest in infrastructure, especially health care and mass transit. When prices in fossil fuels return to where they should be, given limited supply and exponentially increasing demand, government revenues they supply can be used to pay down this spending.

Canadians can be thankful that our more closely regulated (and more monopolistic) banking system is not facing the same problems as those in the U.S. One estimate expects an additional 5 million Americans to join the 47 million already without health care in 2006 according to the U.S. Census Bureau – 15.8% of the popu­lation, a rate that has increased for six consecutive years. A recent survey of 4500 U.S. hospitals, reported in the New York Times, found that more than half were technically insolvent or at risk of insolvency. The evi­dence is there for all to see: We must not allow our medicare system to deteriorate in a similar fashion just because a right-wing government believes the marketplace solves everything. It doesn’t.

The Harper government must strengthen our health care system at a time when the seniors and soon-to-be seniors who paid those heavy taxes, compared to the U.S., will be needing greater care. If the ripple effect of the world economic crisis curtails demand for our products and creates more unemployment, we expect our governments to see this as an opportunity to rebuild crumbling urban infrastructure and extend mass transit, to make us less dependent on fossil fuels when prices start to rebound, as they will. Then will come the time for deficit fighting, not now.