A former MP once said that the best reality check for politicians is going door to door to meet their constituents. While some candidates are more comunicative about what they’re hearing than others, oneRothesay.com is listening, not at the door but through candidates online presence. We’ll comment where we feel it says something about the Candidate that might interest you.
On April 15th, coindidentally the day after oneRothesay.com posted on,” Rothesay’s Fiscal Position… .”, Dr. Nancy Grant, candidate for Mayor, commented on her facebook page that, “Municipalities are about more than balance sheets.”
“Municipalities are about more than balance sheets: they are about providing and maintaining infrastructure, renovating or replacing buildings/facilities at the end of their lifespan ( think Library), sometimes spending money to solve problems ( think Oakville Acres detention pond) and yes, providing recreational opportunities and facilities ( think Common). These are the things that make our quality of life so remarkable!” – Nancy Grant.
My post on April 14th was very much about balance sheets. So, in response to Dr. Grant’s statement, I say, “I agree, wholeheartedly!” But I would add that there is also more to enhancing quality of life than spending gobs of cash and running up debt.
The problem, with diminishing the importance of financial statements is that without understanding the town’s “Balance sheets” decision-makers can’t know if the “extras” are affordable especially the big ticket ones favoured by the Deputy Mayor, .
Dr. Grant, in her campaign material, hasn’t made a business case for the spending that she supported over the last four years and perhaps she doesn’t feel she has to.
But, as she has plans to spend more, like the $13 m Arena, if she is elected Mayor, it might be a good Idea to give taxpayers some argument for why they should endure another 10% or more in tax increases to pay for it all.
So what does this have to do with quality of life? Well economic security is a critical component of quality of life and wellbeing.
Quality of life is a meaningless concept if our community is rendered unaffordable for some people by politicians who are spending at a rate faster than town revenues are growing. The result of constantly higher taxes means financial insecurity and soul destroying anguish for those slowly squeezed by the mounting cost of living. That is true especially for those, like retirees who are coping with a fixed income. Financial worries destroy family relationships and make healthy people sick. That’s not a “quality” life.
Quality of life can be impaired in other ways, for example, if development is forced on neighbourhoods without their consent.
Bigger houses on smaller lots shoehorned into existing mature neighbourhoods against wishes of neighbours does little to enhance quality of life.
Quality of life might have been used to sell the new Arena. But, was quality of life top of mind when the families in twentyfour apartments on Scott Avenue were forced out of their homes by a decision of Rothesay Council to make way for the project?
The motion was supported by Dr. Grant and others. Council demolished two apartment buildings to make way for the Arena that, as we know, was never built. In fact, the Rothesay Arena may never be built because this Council has failed to make a case for it to two successive provincial governments. Neither of them have shown any inclination to fund it. Balance sheets are important when it comes to raising the cash to pay for those “quality of life amenities”.
The two apartment buildings, which Rothesay taxpayers paid more than $1,000,000 for, were reduced to rubble just after they had been renovated by the Town – The million dollar cost was effectively written down to the value of a hole in the ground. (Why did they do that without some sign that funding to pay for the Arena was in place?)
It was an incredible waste of taxpayer’s money (Including $185,000/yr in lost Town revenue from rents), to say nothing of the families made homeless.
One official of NB Housing referred to those apartments as some of the best available accommodation for lower income families in New Brunswick.
So, no quality of life in Rothesay for those residents. The Scott Avenue apartment decision was an embarrassment to Rothesay and while it didn’t bring us the ridicule that the Funky Monkey debacle did, it should have.
Meanwhile, the town’s increasing debt means that fewer of us will be able to afford to live in our lovely community, unable to share Dr. Grant’s “Quality of life”.
Rothesay’s next Councillors had better learn to read balance sheets so they can steer us back to living within the Community’s means.
When choosing a Mayor and Council on May 9th, think about quality of life by all means, but consider where we’ll be if we carry on like this for another four years.
I agree that it’s not all about balance sheets, but as we can see in Rothesay, politicians dismiss them at our peril.
