If the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is looking for somebody to be the recipient of their Teddy's award for most wasteful government spending, the mayor and councillors who voted for the $5 million traffic circle should win the award.
Let me just simply calculate, it takes about 1,600 home owners' annual property taxes in an average neighbourhood ($3,500 a year) to reach about $5 million dollars. So it probably took Grandin and Heritage Lakes residents to pay for that traffic circle.
We had a nice wide four-lane road, now we got a two-lane traffic circle. One councillor tried to tell me that it's more efficient.
I am just guessing for $5 million, council could have made Ray Gibbon Drive four lanes all the way to Giroux Road. That would have benefitted 25,000 drivers a day, whereas the traffic circle just looks pretty.
Abe Preisinger, St. Albert
