In a previous letter I wrote that if we didn’t vote for city council, the city’s services would continue to function. Someone told me that they agreed with what I wrote, but they thought that an elected body of citizens was still required to make decisions for the people of the city.
I agreed with that statement in theory. However, in practice, it has taken city council ten years to approve a skate park and then only if the province would grant the city $400,000. The city has been awarded the grant but another $200,000 still has to be raised in order to create the skate park.
The city council has still not been able to make a decision on the difficult, important, and baffling problem of dogs on Baker Street. The council has been unable to make a definitive decision about the city’s one and only movie theatre. The council has been baffled by the problem of meeting places and benches on Baker Street.
When council did make a decision to eliminate bus routes and certain bus stops, it did so without adequate consultation with the citizens it is supposed to be representing. The council said it was due to budgetary problems. That suggests council cannot control its own financial affairs and the budget that it, itself approved.
So, yes, it would be nice if an elected body of the local citizenry would make decisions for the betterment of all of us. But, as I said, it’s a good idea in theory.
Bob Abrahams
Nelson