Our city council has announced with great fanfare that it has kept the most recent budget’s inflated rate to below three per cent. It is still above the national rate of inflation but, at least for the sake of optics, they are trying. The cynics amongst us are asking, however, how much our other costs are going to rise, as this is what St. Albert’s city council likes to do — subsidize its budget through other means.
Ever since the mayor’s disappointment in falling revenues from ‘law enforcement’ devices was made public, it’s been no secret that the city is looking for additional ways to raise revenues. Just like our banks, their hands are thrust deep into our pockets looking for that last tarnished penny, as the costs of an ever-expanding government now seem the norm. We are not citizens, but ATM machines.
In fairness, the role that our city has taken on over the decades is the problem, as the lines between public and private ‘goods and services’ have become blurred. We are no longer the liberal society of Diefenbaker and Pearson, where ‘individual choice’ was at the forefront. We are a socialist one, as envisioned by Trudeau — our lives are government run, and government is expensive and inefficient.
Sadly, we are so conditioned to this that we expect government to provide everything. Though Nolan Crouse recently stated the city cannot provide everything on a ‘dream list,’ in truth can he truly resist the influence of all the subsidized, fractured interests-groups that are pulling St. Albert in different directions? Can we devolve from this expanded role of government, or are we doomed to see more municipal programs created to raise revenues needed to pay for rising costs?
The desire and reason for the ever-expanding role of government was to produce an idyllic society, catering to the wants of the citizens. Past generations worked hard with pride to build this city, with a sense of community. Like the neighbourhood store, however, we have lost this ideal. Instead we have generic corporate entities, and like them, the city tries to brand itself as something it is not — the word community has lost its meaning. Along with this, it has lost consumer loyalty. People stay out of habit and nostalgia, but they want something better, and they are not happy with their municipal government.
If St. Albert’s government has become a de facto big-box corporate enterprise, maybe they could regain consumer loyalty by offering a rewards program. Maybe we could get ‘air miles’ for using the gym, going to a museum, a hockey game or paying our taxes (all stated facetiously, of course). Or maybe the solution is to focus upon the main duties of a municipal government, reducing its extraneous business costs. For all those groups with their hands out looking for funding, start building relations — not with government — but with the citizens. ‘Community’ is found within the people of a society, not its government, and building bridges and bonds within St. Albert can help restore the sense of community that has been lost. It may not be as lucrative. A project may not gain the support of everyone, but it will be accepted because it is of the people. Community will not be created if it is forced down upon us by government, because all the people will feel is the resentment of rising costs.
John Kennair is an international business consultant and doctor of laws who lives in St. Albert.
