Critics of St. Albert’s government spending frequently complain that too much of it only benefits certain small groups, rather than the majority of citizens. Other residents reply to these critics by saying that the critics only care about city services and spending that benefit them specifically, and not about anything anyone else might benefit from.
This speaks to the larger discussion, we as a community need to have, about exactly what kind of St. Albert we want. Public spending can be advantageous, or it can be wasteful. However, what’s often missed in these discussions is that how the money is spent can be just as important as what it’s actually spent on, or how much of it we spend.
In the case of public art, much of it tends to be focused in the downtown area. A lot of it is also spent on projects that many people consider of dubious value, such as the painted bricks on sidewalks, coloured crosswalks, or the Steinhauer sculptures behind St. Albert Place. The vast majority of residents I’ve spoken to about these projects are not fond of them, and consider them a waste of money.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way. One resident suggested that, if we want sculptures, why not immortalize St. Albert sports heroes like Mark Messier and Jarome Iginla? The statue of Father Lacombe atop Mission Hill is arguably public art, and yet I’ve never heard anyone complain about it, or the statue of Lois Hole in front of St. Albert Place. This is the kind of public art that appeals to a much broader section of the population than random colourings of streets and sidewalks.
We should also ask why so much public art is concentrated in downtown St. Albert. If we’re going to have statues, murals and sculptures, why not scatter them more in different parts of town? Keeping so much of it in downtown St. Albert only reinforces the perception that this spending is only done for the benefit of a certain small elite.
Public art isn’t the only place where we could be spending smarter. The City already owns various buildings that are currently occupied by community groups, but which could just as easily house a new branch library. The library arguably serves a far greater share of the population than a smaller crafts group, so why not house a new branch in an already city-owned building?
We would not only be saving the costs of constructing a new building for the branch library, but we would be using city resources more efficiently for the benefit of more city residents as a whole.
Public spending can be a good thing, obviously. However, it’s incumbent on governments to spend it as efficiently as they can. Making more use of what we already have, and spending to as broad an appeal as possible, can help us accomplish this.
Jared Milne is a St. Albert resident with a passion for Canadian history and politics.
