The city reported total building permit values for November. It made many sit up and take a second look.

For example a $708,000 building permit for building a stage for Rogers Hometown Hockey really means temporarily assembling a stage with an arbitrary value of $708,000.

The city did not spend $708,000 building a stage but they did collect $100 for the permit and $76.70 for the completion report.

When you look at the $11.5 million in building permits announced by the city for November you could assume that there would be $11.5 million in construction to be done in the next year.

Not if the permits cover items like temporary assembling of structures for events.

Including such items I believe inflates the value of actual building permits. In this instance it was a double edged sword as it inflated the total value but created concern of value for money if the city had spent $708,000 to build a temporary stage.

The value of the release also gives us insight to government hypocrisy or the possibility thereof.

Another permit is for $1.2 million for Alberta Health Services to renovate their Administration Offices. This during talks of rollbacks in pay and lay-offs for front workers and nurses.

$1.2 million would pay for a lot of nursing.

Governments of all levels manipulate their reporting and sometimes it comes back to haunt them, like this one.