Here we are…. it all comes down to this… (Cue the dramatic music)
And no – I’m not just talking about the designated truck route…. although THAT is on the agenda tonight too.
The truck route’s re-worded bylaw comes back to council tonight – if it passes – we have a DTR – if it doesn’t – it goes BACK to admin….again…and we’ll wait for it to come back….again…how many years has this been? 10? 15?…. I still have trouble with the whole idea – moving 750+ trucks from Dawson to the expressway…. barreling down the hill in January…. but that ship has sailed, many times.
But also, on the agenda – the Core Services review that your council voted for with a price tag of over 250,000 dollars…. that’s a 250,000 dollar expense to find ways to save money….sounds funny doesn’t it? Because it is. It’s 85 pages of information that i think we already knew. At the same time – the public version of the report mentions very little about savings in staff and any formal major cuts.
For the last several months we’ve heard nothing but “we’ll wait for the services review to determine…etc etc”… Well here it is… and now the spin has become “it’s just suggestions” and “it doesn’t mean we have to do it all”. That’s ok. We knew this – but – we also now have a guiding document and it’s up to this council to make decisions with the new information they have. Will they?
The fact of the matter is that if we would have made decisions earlier on a lot of these things and taken care of these things sooner – we wouldn’t need a report to tell us to sell the conservatory and Port Arthur stadium. Really? Who would by them in the state they’re in? Selling those two properties and the golf courses might save money – but the money would make very little difference to your taxes each year.
Here’s the most important part of this review. It’s this city council’s ultimate test. All of them ran on making the city more fiscally responsible. Many of the new councilors were voted in because their platform was all about change. In the last few years we’ve given out (literally) millions of dollars outside of the approved budget. Yes, millions – look it up. Remember the ski team? How about that sister cities program we keep paying for? Oh – it’s in the review…to cut it.
Well here it is council. Your chance for change. Who’s going to be the first to put their hand up to close the conservatory? Who’s going to the first to vote to sell the golf courses? These things have been coming back to council for years – and nothing was done. Then, a new group of councilors got elected on change – and here’s your chance.
Now, the core services review is just a road map – nothing gets voted on tonight – but this will help guide council into the new budget time this fall. But – here’s the part that i think is most important. For all the talk online, in social media, in local media from the ‘new’ councilors around the table talking about how things need to change in our city…you now find yourself putting your money where your mouth is. This is it. This is your re-election. The next few months is your opportunity to do what you said you were going to do. Make change. Be fiscally responsible. You have the information – who’ll be the first to put their hand up? You all put your hand up to pay over 250,000 for advice on where we could do better. Now we’ll all pay attention to who will put their hand up on the tough decisions – and see if that 250,000 expense on this report was worth it….because…. you voted for that too.
That’s just my two cents. ~ John