DEAR EDITOR:
Maybe we took a wrong turn and need to go back to the map.
Recently municipal councillor Maureen Nicholson posted the earnest question: “I have one more year on municipal council. What accomplishment would make that worthwhile? Not just for me but for the 2018-2022 council.”
The bulk of the responses had a taste of dissatisfaction but many also expressed gratitude to Maureen for her efforts.
Good people run in our municipal elections in sincere hope of making changes and improvements. And yet do we see the amount of change and improvement we hope for? Are we just a bunch of dissatisfied whining Canadians or are we trying to make changes and improvements in a system that doesn’t allow much latitude for those things?
I recall, not the issue, but the frustrated response of the Mayor when he said: “We have done everything we can.” At first I thought it a cop out, but later realized that the truth was deeper. Everything that could be done had been done within this limited system.
It seems to me to be a top-heavy system that is designed to expand itself. When last I took a look at the municipal budget, I found that of the $9 million revenue, approximately two-thirds went to governance and planning and one third to concrete stuff. I thought that perhaps that should be the other way around, and I wondered what our municipal structure does apart from creating some well paying but thankless jobs, with benefits.
When the idea of incorporation as a municipality came up, the majority of voters went for it thinking that this was our little community taking a step to maturity. But I also wonder if we haven’t made a mistake and should consider a hard look at disincorporation and what that would mean.
I’m just not sure that in a year I can take another round of hopeful fresh candidates, looking to do a better job in what may well be a dysfunctional system. What is that saying about continually doing the same thing yet hoping for a different outcome?
Richard Best
