Governments of all kinds are renowned for being extremely inefficient. I have seen this close up in two different industries. Control over funds runs adversarially to saving. Having once worked for an office furniture manufacturer, I observed that near the end of the fiscal year, product would go out the door by the truckload, only to find it in the auctions two or three months later, still in the boxes. At no fault to our hard-working civil servants, they are told that if they don’t spend their budgets they will lose them for the next year. Hence rather than save money they have to find creative ways to spend it. I have spent 20 years in a management capacity of the road construction business. It is cause for concern when I see yellow crosswalks, roads to nowhere, colourfully-painted curb areas and centre lines on our bike paths that will far out-last the pavement, and at a cost of many, many times the cost of pain. Why can we not tap the vast experience and brain power of these civil servants by providing incentives for them to save money. Better to have several hundreds of brains working on our behalf than just a few at the top. For example, staff could be offered bonuses, based on ideas that they bring forward that will provide savings for the city. This way staff that are on the front line would be rewarded, the city would save precious funds and taxpayers, you and I, would benefit. Randy Ellis, St. Albert
