07-19-2021, 07:57 PM
(07-19-2021, 05:05 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Leaving aside the environmental issues, there are more people and certainly more equality from investing in cycling lanes, than from investing in our airport. And I support improving travel, but I don't support spending 40 million dollars on an airport that consistently fails to attract flights. I hate traveling to Pearson as much as anyone, God knows you've all heard me complain about it. But 40 million dollars could run buses to Toronto, Guelph, Stratford, that transit improvement would make a much bigger impact in more people's lives than simply adding a few flights to our airport.
And frankly, if we're giving up on HSR, that's pointlessly defeatist...if we can invest in an airport, we can invest in rail.
By investing in this airport, we help to hopefully build another major international airport destination in the country. By having a ULCC here that flies all across our nation, it helps brings in more people to Waterloo Region. It helps boost our economy, our education, our tax revenue, our employment numbers and so much more. Having an airliner willing to gamble millions of dollars into this region to fly all around the country is a pretty big deal, but it can be very rewarding. If we can attract more airliners, that's even better. Even if we can attract more tourists or business workers here, that's great too. I don't think you really know a whole lot about infrastructure to be honest, but having a major airliner here is a pretty big economic deal. You might think the money might be better spent so you can safely ride your bicycle down Homer Watson Road or whatever is the most currently problematic street in WR for you, but when you're dealing with massive infrastructure investments, people are looking to airports...especially in a region that will probably be nearing 3/4th of a million people in the next year. If you want to think about infrastructure, you need to think grand, not just want impacts you.
Also, we're never gonna get HSR here before every one of the users on this forum has grey hair and is in geriatric care, so stop dreaming about it lol...