This letter is aimed right at our city council. Last week I had a moment to sit down with one of our local councillors and have a chat about the funding allocated to the proposed LRT expansion into St.Albert – $500,000!

Len Bracko says "It's only $4.00 per day or a cup of coffee." Well Len, I don't want to buy that cup of coffee. Nor does my wife or my children or anyone else I have spoken to about this matter. Nobody I know supports your vision of the LRT coming to St. Albert.

The province is going to pay for all of this, you say? On March 11, Doug Horner, our Finance minister, said: “The province needs to learn to live within its means and that means saving cash and cutting fat before raising taxes.”

Do you really think that money is guaranteed, Len? I think not. Mayor Nolan Crouse says it’s much more likely that the LRT will come to St. Albert within 30 to 50 years. Yet I understand that even he voted in favour of this study.

So here we are in a situation that we seem to have a half million dollars laying around that we can spend on a study that will be outdated within five or 10 years with no guarantee we will ever see an LRT expansion into St. Albert while we cut funding for other important community projects and raise taxes!

When will the people we vote in to manage our city understand that this is not a time for them to experiment with their pet projects or feel they need to leave a legacy for everyone to remember them by? I remember the last bunch we voted out for leaving us with their legacy of a poorly-planned and poorly-placed Servus Place that still costs us money every year.

We vote you in to manage our city like a business. When will you people understand this? To put it simply, you are playing with MY money! Not yours! A last comment to all the city councillors who voted for this study: If you run your household the same way you run this city I'm surprised any of you can afford to live here.

Terry Mayer, St. Albert

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