Alan Murdock gets a special column in the St. Albert Gazette where he is portrayed as a “local pediatrician.” Using this platform, his last column “Is the Sky Really Falling,” takes aim at the St. Albert Taxpayers Association (SATA), of which I am president. He says that as SATA has the effrontery to question council on the way it spends taxpayer dollars and increases its tax take by 92 per cent between 2002 and 2009, that somehow this translates into his headline!
This is the second time Murdock has taken aim at SATA. Why? Well, what is unsaid in the commentary or his description as a pediatrician is that he is also chairman of the board of trustees of the Arts and Heritage Foundation (AHF).
He goes on to fill this column with descriptions of how wonderful are the facilities run by the AHF. Does this smack of a touch of blowing his own horn? Does this smack of misleading the public, when nowhere does he reveal his pivotal interest in the foundation? Does this smack of fear that taxpayers might question the over $1 million per year that city taxpayers subsidize the $1.6 million budget of AHF or the $14 million they want to build their poor substitution for Fort Edmonton Park or their latest trip to the public trough in wanting many millions to build a huge expansion of Profiles Gallery (including a 12-storey tower)?
SATA does not say that funding for cultural, sports and recreation should stop. Rather, we question why St. Albert pays 54 per cent more in these areas than the average paid by other prairie cities. We question why we should build all these world-class facilities when we have the advantage of the big city of Edmonton next door with all its facilities and employment opportunities, unlike most of those other prairie/Alberta cities.
Unfortunately Mr Murdock and other special interest groups continue to want more and more taxpayers’ dollars to support their special interests. They are worried that citizens and council just might start to question whether this continues to be in the best interest of the majority of citizens. The special interest lobbies don’t care that St. Albert has negative growth in its young people as its high costs mean they can’t afford to live here. They don’t care if seniors are forced out as a doubling of their taxes eats up 15 per cent or more of their income. All they want is that their private fiefdom gets more.
In closing, we also question the role of the St. Albert Gazette in offering a public platform that misleads the public as to the true nature of the commentary.
Lynda Flannery, President, St. Albert Taxpayers Association
