It's bigger, faster and there is more of it than what was ever anticipated.
We're describing the growth in southeast Saskatchewan that appears to be continuing unabated.
This unprecedented expansion is now into its fifth year and the wear and tear on our regional infrastructure was visible last year and is now very painfully apparent.
So we cry for more attention to be paid to our needs in this corner of the province while we are reminded there is a big growth pattern throughout the province and the provincial government is scrambling to cover all geographic bases.
There is a highway to complete twinning up near Prince Albert, plus $43 million more to be spent on highways around there.
There is another highway near St. Louis that has been under water for two weeks, costing local businesses a lot of money and the populations a lot of angst. We can feel their pain since it was just two summers ago we were in the same situation.
There are big growth problems to contend with in Regina and Saskatoon. We understand.
So we bite our tongues, assuming the good old Saskatchewan attitude that maybe after Tom, Dick and Harry have been appeased and after a few emergency business fires have been put out and perhaps when promises that were made elsewhere three years ago have been addressed maybe, just maybe, it will be our turn. Maybe this time if we bat our flirting eyelashes a little bit more provocatively, we'll receive some attention from the power brokers who work within our provincial democratic system.
What do we need? And let's not even discuss a wish list. We'll just stick to immediate needs that have to be met to avoid disasters and calamities in the fastest growing quick dollar sector.
We need at least four drivable main streets in this city the heavy traffic throughways within our central business district. We don't have them. We have one and it's being strained to the maximum right now, thereby reducing its life expectancy by half.
We need some decently paved highways in the immediate area. We're willing to forget Highway 39 twinning for the rest of this year. Just get some decent asphalt down so those bigger, heavier, faster units can move around without threatening the rest of us.
We need a heavy truck bypass OK, we said we weren't including our wish list, but we can't help it, we need to dream some of the time.
We need affordable housing yesterday. Forget about the markets finding their own levels and all that other investment/money management/market analysis/land development planning gobbledygook. Everybody is apparently making lots of money, so why not invest it in the community you're making it in?
We need better primary health-care services. The local health region's budget has increased by more than $46 million in six years and we're still begging for something as simple and as necessary as a CT scanner. Where's the switch? Somebody please turn it on! We need more beds, not fewer. We need specialists and clinical centres of excellence to accompany our supposed untold wealth. We shouldn't need to be begging for more GPs and freshly graduated nurses they're more than welcome, don't get us wrong, but where is the big picture being formulated?
Our school roofs are leaking and falling in on our kids. Has anyone noticed that?
Water and sewer systems not only need to be repaired now, but they also need to be expanded.
We won't even delve into the culture and recreation files because that would just be too painful.
So while we continue to grow, we'll have to keep hoping a few in positions who can make a difference, are paying attention.
If not, perhaps we could steal a page from our own history book. Back in the 1950s, when we had another huge era of growth, they just built the stuff, paid for it, and then got permission for what was already built later. That might sound a little radical in this day and age, but desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.
