Alberta transportation cuts will harm consulting engineers

Consulting Engineers of Alberta are objecting to the Alberta Government’s plans to cut spending drastically for highway construction. A press release from CEA says the cuts are “counterproductive” and will harm Alberta’s economic competitiveness and jeopardize transportation safety.

They also say the cuts — which are to be more than 60% — will result in approximately 500 job losses in the consulting engineering industry, as well as 6,000 in other areas.

CEA argues that the consulting industry has invested millions of dollars to train and develop expertise according to the Alberta Government’s three year business plan, and that the transportaion cuts violate that plan. Even though CEA agrees that the government must keep expenditures within targets, they feel efficiencies across government departments can result in savings.

CEA also proposes other solutions such as toll roads, public private partnerships, and dedicating $550 million in federal and $750 milion in provincial fuel taxes to the transportation budget.
See www.cea.ca