In the midst of the controversy over the Draper/Crouse decision to appoint Prefontaine to the position of the top official in the planning and engineering department, even though he has absolutely no qualifications as a planner or an engineer, Coun. MacKay has raised the broader issue – “Do we live in a democracy or a bureaucracy?”
Initially, MacKay got the administration to admit that it would basically cost nothing to put questions on the upcoming by election ballot for input from the electorate. Now, MacKay has served notice that he intends to ask council to approve having two questions be put on the ballot for consideration by the St. Albert taxpayers. Basically, those two question are:
1. Do you think the city should have an independent auditor to report on financial malfeasance, economic waste, and suggest ways to increase cost effectiveness?
2. Do you think the city should re-visit and revise the recently approved utility rates regime which removed provincial subsidies so that these provincial grants could be used for legacy projects like the proposed multi-million dollar new civic building?
It is going to be fascinating to watch the rationalization, dodging, and double-speak by those councillors who do not want to be under the scrutiny of an independent auditor. It will be equally fascinating to watch the weaving and bobbing as certain councillors attempt to justify their view that the people should have no input into their own utility rates.
Since Coun. MacKay deftly took the “your ideas are too costly to implement” argument off the table, I suspect that some of the “political philosophers” who presently sit on council, will attempt to argue that they were elected to make the decisions and not the general public. The weakness of that argument is that most of the St. Albert electorate have more education, more responsibility in their public or private lives, and more common sense than many of those on council.
Hence, the specific question arises …. “when you have an electorate that is educated and fully capable of making sensible decisions, why are you afraid to ask them for their opinion? And, since we have several on council who do not want the people to have a say in their own governance, the general question arises …. “in St. Albert, are we going to live in a democracy or in a bureaucracy?
That, it seems, is a question which every thoughtful voter should be asking every candidate who runs in this upcoming byelection.
Gord Hennigar, St. Albert
