Inaction and procrastination at city hall may cost our children $100 million.

Garfield Marks

Published

6 years ago

1 minute read

Red Deer County released the fact to our local media that they ramped up construction projects because tenders were coming in at 50% off boom prices.

Red Deer City just released the fact that they will delay construction projects for another 10 years.

The Aquatic Centre including a 50m pool, which has been requested and lobbied for, for at least 30 years, long before the last pool, (Collicutt) was built 2 decades ago.

The estimated cost at one time , at least 5 years ago, was $87 million. In boom times you could reasonably expect the cost to increase by 5% per year. 5 years and add another 10 years and we are looking at a cost of approximately $150 million.

Red Deer County says they were getting 50% discounts and Blackfalds is getting their new public works yard sooner at 40% off and it will be at least 20% larger than planned.

Red Deer City should get the county or Blackfalds negotiators to find these great deals. We may have gotten the pool for $43 million but now it looks like it could cost our children $150 million.

If this delay of another 10 years, costs us over a $100 million more than what it would have cost us today, I think our city leaders have failed us miserably. We will never know because they won’t look, they won’t ask, and they would not admit it anyways.

Too bad.

Garfield Marks

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armed forces

Global Military Industrial Complex Has Never Had It So Good, New Report Finds

Published on December 1, 2025

Todayville

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Wallace White

The global war business scored record revenues in 2024 amid multiple protracted proxy conflicts across the world, according to a new industry analysis released on Monday.

The top 100 arms manufacturers in the world raked in $679 billion in revenue in 2024, up 5.9% from the year prior, according to a new Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) study. The figure marks the highest ever revenue for manufacturers recorded by SIPRI as the group credits major conflicts for supplying the large appetite for arms around the world.

“The rise in the total arms revenues of the Top 100 in 2024 was mostly due to overall increases in the arms revenues of companies based in Europe and the United States,” SIPRI said in their report. “There were year-on-year increases in all the geographical areas covered by the ranking apart from Asia and Oceania, which saw a slight decrease, largely as a result of a notable drop in the total arms revenues of Chinese companies.”

Notably, Chinese arms manufacturers saw a large drop in reported revenues, declining 10% from 2023 to 2024, according to SIPRI. Just off China’s shores, Japan’s arms industry saw the largest single year-over-year increase in revenue of all regions measured, jumping 40% from 2023 to 2024.

American companies dominate the top of the list, which measures individual companies’ revenue, with Lockheed Martin taking the top spot with $64,650,000,000 of arms revenue in 2024, according to the report. Raytheon Technologies, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems follow shortly after in revenue,

The Czechoslovak Group recorded the single largest jump in year-on-year revenue from 2023 to 2024, increasing its haul by 193%, according to SIPRI. The increase is largely driven by their crucial role in supplying arms and ammunition to Ukraine.

The Pentagon contracted one of the group’s subsidiaries in August to build a new ammo plant in the U.S. to replenish artillery shell stockpiles drained by U.S. aid to Ukraine.

“In 2024 the growing demand for military equipment around the world, primarily linked to rising geopolitical tensions, accelerated the increase in total Top 100 arms revenues seen in 2023,” the report reads. “More than three quarters of companies in the Top 100 (77 companies) increased their arms revenues in 2024, with 42 reporting at least double-digit percentage growth.”

International

Atlantic hurricane season is 8th this century with no landfalls

Published on December 1, 2025

Todayville

From The Center Square

By Alan Wooten

Nothing like Helene, and nothing like three hurricanes making landfall in 66 days.

Sunday’s end to the hurricane season for the Atlantic Basin was welcomed from the Gulf states to the Atlantic seaboard, with gratitude not a single one made landfall in the United States. A year ago, Hurricane Helene was among the three in just over two months that arrived in Florida, and its destruction was most heavily felt in North Carolina with 108 deaths and an estimated $60 billion to $80 billion in damages.

This is the 62nd week of recovery from Helene.

“That was a much-needed break,” said Dr, Neil Jacobs, under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator. “Still, a tropical storm caused damage and casualties in the Carolinas, distant hurricanes created rough ocean waters that caused property damage along the East Coast, and neighboring countries experienced direct hits from hurricanes.”

This is the eighth year this century with no hurricane landfalls in the Atlantic season. The previous years were 2000, 2001, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2015.

Thirteen storms reached a level to be named, five escalated to Category 1 (sustained winds of 74 mph or greater) and four of those eclipsed Category 3 (sustained winds 111 mph or greater).

Hurricanes Humberto and Imelda on Sept. 30 drew as close as 450 to 600 miles apart in the Atlantic Ocean, churning up the surf along much of the East Coast and drawing a warning for storm surge between Florida and South Carolina. Imelda ultimately was drawn toward and followed Humberto out to sea, enabling the Carolinas to avert catastrophe.

Erin, however, was a different story. Once a Category 5 (sustained winds 157 mph or greater) in the ocean, the storm temporarily shuttered four ferries in North Carolina and closed the 148-mile famed N.C. 12.

Tropical Storm Barry in June was the closest threat to Gulf Coast states. Imelda was the closest threat to Florida.

In Florida in 2024, Debby made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane near Steinhatchee on Aug. 5, Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach on Sept. 26, and Milton made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane near Siesta Key on Oct. 9.

The 2024 season had 18 named storms, 11 reaching at least Category 1 hurricane level, and five of those accorded major hurricane level (Category 3 or worse).