Conclusion
The time has come for Canadian municipalities to get their houses in order to ensure purchasing becomes more open, fair and competitive. Sound management, smart planning, and cost efficiency demand that the federal government ensure open procurement policies and innovative financing as a key condition of any funds allocated to infrastructure. Taxpayers deserve nothing less.
Editor's Postscript
In their paper "Entrusted to Our Care", Alan Perks, FCSCE, and Brian Burrell, FCSCE, observe in a section titled The Challenge of Our Generation:
"Global environmental, economic, and social pressures, driven by the world's burgeoning population, will certainly worsen the already serious problems confronting humanity over the next decade. Because the human population is already well beyond the natural carrying capacity of the earth, we are all technology dependent and must rely upon modern civil engineering infrastructure for our daily living."[2]
They might well have included: "As well as relying on maintaining and upgrading the public utilities - including roads, rail, transit, bridges and the water and sewer utilities - that we already have."
2. Perks, Alan R., P.Eng., FCSCE, FEIC & Brian C. Burrell, P.Eng., FCSCE, Civil Engineering and Sustainable Development in the Canadian Civil Engineer, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, Montreal, QC, Canada, pp10-12
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Insincere Objections