With few precious summer days remaining, St. Albert residents can be forgiven for showing little enthusiasm for a municipal election that’s still a month and a half away. Local elections typically draw lower turnout at the polls than other levels of government, so it’s commendable that the St. Albert Taxpayers’ Association wanted to do its part to raise civic engagement with a ‘mini forum’ Tuesday night. Despite such a well-meaning goal, the format employed gave a woefully incomplete picture of the choices facing voters on Oct. 18, and raises questions about the motives of those holding the session.
Only non-incumbent city council and mayoral candidates were invited to the tax watchdog’s monthly meeting, and five actually attended the event, which drew about 40 people to the St. Albert Community Hall. Invites were not sent to the five incumbent councillors and mayor seeking re-election, the reason being the current council has made its views known about the issues and, frankly, doesn’t need help raising individual public profiles.
The taxpayers’ association is free to run its meetings and invite whomever it sees fit, however given its combative history with the current council, the motives for omitting incumbents cannot be viewed as an innocuous attempt to level the playing field. Most issues raised — DARP, solid waste, Riel Park, Arlington Drive — have already been soundly denounced by the taxpayers’ association in council chambers.
Few questions actually focused on future initiatives or innovative thinking, and some, like candidates’ attitudes about city administration and whether heads should roll for cost overruns suggest the taxpayers’ association wants to zero in on candidates more in line with its own hawkish ideology, having made its mind up about incumbents and their ability to lead the ship. That takes the organization beyond advocacy and into the realm of agenda-setting special interests, which it’s been so vehemently against.
There is no denying the value of holding sessions with mayoral and council candidates, and for that the taxpayers’ group should be commended. Any public discussion about issues like property taxation, economic development, land use planning, affordable housing, utilities, infrastructure and transit is worthwhile and vital to ensuring a long-term vision for St. Albert. However, the taxpayers group is treading a dangerous path by sticking to one tired, predictable message — don’t — which citizens will eventually start to tune out. Unless they start telling St. Albert taxpayers what else ‘their’ association actually stands for, they threaten to make themselves irrelevant. Hopefully when the association holds a full forum on Sept. 28 candidates will face a more creative line of questioning that addresses the next three years, and not just beaten horses.
