Lynda Flannery, president of St. Albert Taxpayers Association (SATA) refers to me in her recent letter. I wonder why she found it relevant to identify me as a board member of the Arts and Heritage Foundation (AHF).
First, I have no authority to speak on behalf of the AHF. Secondly, my letter had absolutely nothing to do with the AHF. But I thank Flannery for giving me the opportunity to express how honoured I am to be associated with the AHF.
The services we provide to the community are too numerous to detail here (visit our website at www.artsheritage.ca). Flannery complains about “excessive spending on non-essential projects that benefit only a small segment of the community.” But it's because of the AHF that 32,000 school children each year are exposed to various programs that enrich their education (cost to the children: $0). There is Profiles Public Art Gallery (cost of admission: $0), there are the popular summer Art Walks (cost of admission: $0), there is a MusĂ©e Heritage Museum (cost of admission: $0) and there are various heritage sites (cost of admission: $0). From where does Flannery concoct the notion that only a small number of people take advantage of all this? Moreover, SATA pretends to advocate on behalf of our citizens on limited income. Aren't our free services in line with that?
Regarding “huge sums of money out of the taxpayers pockets,” when evaluating a total municipal budget, it makes more sense to quote percentage figures than absolute values. The city's operating grant to the AHF costs taxpayers less than one per cent of the total municipal budget. Let me emphasize again — SATA has played a laudable role in highlighting the necessity for the city to conduct its business in a fiscally prudent manner. Frankly, it's childish for Flannery to undermine her own message by continuing to malign other community organizations that are making their contributions.
Flannery says that St. Albert “spends [on a per capita basis] more than twice as much on recreation and culture as Edmonton, and Calgary.” Whether or not that statement is true, those cities each serve a population approaching 20 times our size, so they can provide more for a smaller proportion of their budgets because of economy of scale. This is Economics 101.
She repeats the silly idea that we should “capitalize on St. Albert's proximity to Edmonton and area attractions and don't develop projects and programs that compete with them.” First, and using my earlier example, the Arden Theatre is not in competition with any other facility. Follow her line of argument and we should not even have a library because Edmonton has one. But the libraries and theatres in the Capital region all complement each other and all contribute to the quality of the whole.
St. Albert long ago ceased to be just a bedroom community. If Flannery's goal is indeed to strip us back to where we were many decades ago, what sort of vision is that?
W. Reuben Kaufman, St. Albert
