Opinion
2021 Statistics Canada census shows Red Deer has 37 more residents than 2015 municipal census
According to Statistics Canada, Alberta’s population sits at 4,262,635 residents, an increase of 4.8% since 2017.
Here in Central Alberta, we saw Blackfalds’ population increase by 12.2% from 9,328 to 10,470, Sylvan Lake’s population increase by 8% from 14,816 to 15,995, Penhold’s population increase by 6% from 3,287 to 3,484, Lacombe’s population increase by 2.6% from 13,051 to 13,396, Innisfail’s population increase by 1.8% from 7,847 to 7,985 and Red Deer’s population increase by 0.4% from 100,418 to 100,844.
Red Deer’s municipal census of 2015 had Red Deer’s population at 100,807 so we now have 37 more residents than we did 7 years ago.
The Statistics Canada census says we have 100,844 residents, an increase of 427 residents since 2017 but it also shows we have 43,404 homes an increase of 3419 homes, compared to 39,985 homes in 2017.
That is 8 new homes for every new resident.
Basically, we have the same number of taxpayers, paying ever increasing taxes for ever increasing services spread over more area. In 2017 1,000 residents would be paying property taxes on 398 homes, in 2021 those 1,000 residents would be paying taxes on 431 homes.
If you look at the faster growing communities, Blackfalds, Sylvan Lake, Lacombe, and you would also see that they invested in their recreational facilities at exponentially larger rates per capita than Red Deer. Any correlation?
The thought is that for every mile from the centre of the city, you build a home the annual maintenance costs for the city increases by $1,000, whether that still remains true, I do not know. If a new neighbourhood is built without growth and if maintenance costs grow exponentially, then does it makes sense to keep adding neighbourhoods, building new houses and adding new roads, sidewalks, bus routes, infrastructure and services.
I am just asking for a breather. According to federal and municipal censuses we have grown by a total of 37 people since 2015, but we have built new neighbourhoods, roads, sidewalks, facilities, depreciated our home assessment values, and increased our taxes.
The province has grown 12 times faster than Red Deer. Blackfalds has grown 30.5 times faster. Penhold is growing at 24 times the rate of Red Deer.
Time for a rethink? Just asking.
Business
Canadians should expect even more spending in federal fall economic statement
From the Fraser Institute
By Jake Fuss and Grady Munro
The Trudeau government will soon release its fall economic statement. Though technically intended to be an update on the fiscal plan in this year’s budget, in recent years the fall economic statement has more closely resembled a “mini-budget” that unveils new (and often significant) spending commitments and initiatives.
Let’s look at the data.
The chart below includes projections of annual federal program spending from a series of federal budgets and updates, beginning with the 2022 budget and ending with the latest 2024 budget. Program spending equals total spending minus debt interest costs, and represents discretionary spending by the federal government.
Clearly, there’s a trend that with every consecutive budget and fiscal update the Trudeau government revises spending estimates upwards. Take the last two fiscal years, 2023/24 and 2024/25, for example. Budget 2022 projected annual program spending of $436.5 billion for the 2023/24 fiscal year. Yet the fall economic statement released just months later revised that spending estimate up to $449.8 billion, and later releases showed even higher spending.
The issue is even more stark when examining spending projections for the current fiscal year. Budget 2022 projected annual spending of $441.6 billion in 2024/25. Since then, every subsequent fiscal release has revised that estimate higher and higher, to the point that Budget 2024 estimates program spending of $483.6 billion for this year—representing a $42.0 billion increase from the projections only two years ago.
Meanwhile, as spending estimates are revised upwards, plans to reduce the federal deficit are consistently pushed off into later years.
For example, the 2022 fall economic statement projected a deficit of $25.4 billion for the 2024/25 fiscal year, and declining deficits in the years to come, before reaching an eventual surplus of $4.5 billion in 2027/28. However, subsequent budgets and fiscal updates again revised those estimates. The latest budget projects a deficit of $39.8 billion in 2024/25 that will decline to a $26.8 billion deficit by 2027/28. In other words, though budgets and fiscal updates have consistently projected declining deficits between 2024/25 and 2027/28, each subsequent document has produced larger deficits throughout the fiscal outlook and pushed the timeline for balanced budgets further into the future.
These data illustrate the Trudeau government’s lack of accountability to its own fiscal plans. Though the unpredictable nature of forecasting means the government is unlikely to exactly meet future projections, it’s still reasonable to expect it will roughly follow its own fiscal plans. However, time and time again Canadians have been sold a certain plan, only to have it change dramatically mere months later due to the government’s unwillingness to restrain spending. We shouldn’t expect the upcoming fall economic statement to be any different.
Authors:
International
Trump appoints Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy to lead new Department of Government Efficiency
From LifeSiteNews
The president-elect has set a deadline of July 4, 2026, to ‘drive out the massive waste and fraud’ in the U.S. government.
President-elect Donald Trump announced that Elon Musk will lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with businessman and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal agencies — Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,” Trump announced Tuesday on Truth Social.
Trump explained that the agency will “provide advice and guidance from outside of government and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before.”
The president assigned the duo a deadline of July 4, 2026, to “drive out the massive waste and fraud” that plagues our government budget, which has reached a mammoth size: $6.5 trillion per year.
Mogul and X owner Musk, who has been outspoken about the big problem of government waste, noted Tuesday that if the government is not made efficient, the country will go “bankrupt.”
He reposted a clip from a recent talk he gave in which he explained that not only is our defense budget “pretty gigantic” — a trillion dollars —but the interest the U.S. now owes on its debt is higher than this.
“This is not sustainable. That’s why we need the Department of Government Efficiency,” Musk said.
The U.S. debt has doubled since 2015 to reach $35.46 trillion, according to statistics shared by investor Mario Nawfal.
Musk has also shared to X reports that the Government Accountability Office “estimates the federal government wastes $247B in taxpayer money each year,” and that the Department of the Treasury reported $24.5B in “unreconciled transactions” — which means unknown items — in the past.
In an October interview with Tucker Carlson, Musk proposed that the amount of federal agencies should be cut from about 428 to 99.
Ramaswamy has similarly called for a “massive downsizing” of government bureaucracy after his appointment to DOGE.
Musk responded on X, “This is the only way.”
Ramaswamy has made clear, as has Musk, that cutting regulations is a key part of their mission at DOGE. Ramaswamy maintains that “eliminating bureaucratic regulations isn’t a mere policy preference” but “a legal *mandate* from the U.S. Supreme Court.” He cited on X the Supreme Court decision that, for example, “agencies cannot decide major questions of economic or political significance without ‘clear congressional authorization.’”
Musk shared Tuesday that all DOGE actions “will be posted online for maximum transparency,” adding, “Anytime the public thinks we are cutting something important or not cutting something wasteful, just let us know!”
Commentators have observed that Musk has already demonstrated a knack for organizational efficiency through his streamlining of the social media platform Twitter, which Musk rebranded as X.
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