Gary Doer and highways - scrambling, scrambling, scrambling

After seven years, Gary Doer has finally grasped that people are for good reason upset with the state of our province's highways. So, with his new conversion to infrastructure, he has been announcing all sorts of new money for highways. But in doing so he says: "Those roads have deteriorated quicker than we thought."

Now, most roads are built to a particular quality standard to give them a certain life expectancy. Is Gary Doer saying that something was wrong with the quality of the roads built? If so, one has to ask which government was supposed to monitor the quality of the construction?

In fact, Gary Doer was presented with a report over four years ago - his very own 2020 Transportation Vison Report - which said in April 2002 that there was a major problem with Manitoba highways and he needed to address it. But instead of acting when he should have acted in 2002, Gary Doer sat back and waited - and waited - and waited. Now his inaction and indifference is coming back to haunt him as he desparately promises piles of money to be spent without even presenting a budget.

Then it gets even worse. Doer is on record saying he "hopes" the extra $300 million he's announced for highways will be found somewhere in general revenue, but if it is not, he will dip into the province's rainy day fund - the emergency money we set aside that's supposed to help keep basic services running in case of serious economic downturns.

What kind of planning is this? Ordinarily, this kind of spending would be part of the normal budget process with debate. This time it was not - and we have no indication of the fiscal impact or soundness of all these sudden promises. If the NDP was going to do this, why not bring down a mini-budget rather than trying to scramble around without knowing where they are going.

Sorry Gary, but this is no way to run a province.