The province is planning to pay engineers $250,000 to study the feasibility of building a bridge or highway to the Sunshine Coast.
Questions the study will address include whether such a thing is technically possible and what the costs and benefits would be.
To save a significant chunk of change, not to mention a lot of teeth grinding, we’re prepared to skip lengthy study and answer those questions now, for free.
Here we go: yes, it’s technically possible. Since we can send satellites to orbit distant planets, this shouldn’t be surprising. All it takes is money.
That’s where the second question comes in. Bridges and roads are notoriously expensive. To build such a connection, the money involved would be in the billions. And the toll to use it would be so high as to soon make those drivers long for a comparatively cheap ferry ride.
It’s curious to consider that there’s nothing more pressing the province could find to drop $250K on.
But this study has never been about reality. It’s all about perception.
You’d almost think we were in the beginning stages of the lead-up to a provincial election.
To find out how this study is likely going to end, look no further than the equally inspired $200,000 study of a bridge to Gabriola Island, which after two years concluded that it would be technically possible but economically stupid – costing somewhere between $258 and $520 million.
We anticipate a similar dazzling glimpse of the obvious resulting from the Sunshine Coast bridge study.
Look for it – likely after the next provincial election.
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