FTLComm - Tisdale - July 19, 2000

Tisdale, and many other Saskatchewan towns like it are becoming trucking hubs with snorting diesel beasts trudging through town as they fill the role of moving goods and raw materials to market. This picture taken this morning is typical as the trucks line up to go through the four way stop at the intersection of highways #3 and #35. While, on the East side of town the RM gravel stock pile is being used up as trucks are being loaded as they head out to apply gravel to muncipal roads beaten and pulvarised by loads far beyong their original design. Though politicians and economist claim this trend is

inevitable and that all of us are powerless to confront this onslout of negative progress it would seem that historians will one day condemn us for not having the forsight to retain the railways and be more conscious of the rural degradation brought about by industrial and conglomerate driven agriculture. The picture below taken just before nine this morning shows a survey team working on Heritage Road which was the subject of a story in Ensign yesterday. Though it is to soon to speculate but when we see survey teams in action it is often the indicator of more changes to come.

It would seem to me that the convenience and free wheeling nature of trucks is completely inefficient to society as a whole when compared with rail transportation. The devolution of the federal government and its responsibility to the country as a whole has meant that transportation, the primary problem of a country as large and decentralised as our own has turned the cost of maintaining our transportation network to the people in the most remote areas to benefit those in the most central areas. It is the tax payers here who have to built and rebuild the road system while the railroads are removed and concentrate on long hauls maximising profits for their share holders. While the share holders benefit we and out way of life is sacrificed and national unity is just a fading memory.