Maybe it's just me, but I reflexively cringe whenever I read "As taxpayers …" in a letter on these pages. I know the "waste of money that doesn't help me" argument is sure to follow.
I'm not saying that I don't appreciate that people question government spending choices. I'm actually grateful that so many people are engaged.
Having said that, I'd like to think we're more than just taxpayers and that living in a community is more than just a commercial transaction between individuals and the government to be evaluated solely based on our own short-term personal needs. Affordable housing? Downtown redevelopment? Public art? Doesn't help me. Why should I pay?
We may be consumers and taxpayers, but I'd like to think that we have a bigger role to play and responsibilities that come with it. We're citizens.
As citizens, we have an obligation to provide for those who have different needs and are in different situations than ourselves. We also are obliged to make this a better community for future citizens and that means investing in amenities that will help retain current residents and attract new ones.
"If they can afford to live here with the high property taxes," some would say. No doubt this is an issue, but to some degree we can control that by the type, size and location of the home we choose to live in. Having more diversity in housing stock would help here, something that downtown redevelopment proposals would begin to address.
City council and staffers have a tough job fulfilling their responsibilities to the diverse needs of people living here now and also investing for the future. They must take into account future changes in demographics, economics, energy, transportation and the environment.
Yes, providing input and scrutinizing their decisions is important, but this needs to be on the basis of not only our present day, individual economic self-interest.
Besides, how much will your home be worth in the future if St. Albert is a generic bedroom community like any other, suited only to a narrow range of today's lifestyles?
Mark Roseman, St. Albert
