The infrastructure in Canadian cities is "near collapse" and will cost $123 billion to repair and replace — money that municipalities don't have, a new report warns. (http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/278129)

It shocks me that governments can spend money with reckless abandon but not on basic infrastructure.

This thread is a perfect counter-point to the thread about paying athletes for medals. (The amount of the medal money alone isn't the issue: The problem is the thinking behind diverting money from core/essential services and spending it where - in my opinion, anyway - it doesn't need to be spent.)

Agreed. In addition, as the economy falters in the coming months (as it appears it will), this would be an excellent time for the government to spend big on infrastructure.

It would stimulate a lot of work in the trades and offset job losses elsewhere.

It was scary driving in this morning and hearing this on the news, especially with the ssimilar incident of the bridges in montreal a few months back. That is a lot of money, but from what I heard, the structures have been under maintenance anyway, and are due for a thorough checkup next year.