Good luck to all the candidates.

Today is a time to be thankful, thankful that we get to participate in the democratic process. Thankful that a variety of people put forth their names and their platforms to provide us choices.  No matter what the results are, later tonight we will have a new council. Tomorrow will be the time to start moving forward. The campaigns are over now the people will choose.
Good luck to everyone.

Election 2013 My Platform

Below are some of the issues and positions I will take over the next four years. If there is something I have not addressed that concerns you please contact me. 

Election 2013   Vote for Dean Ward  X

Heading into the final week of the election every candidate should provide the taxpayers the opportunity to see where they stand on the issues important to the community

Below is my platform for 2013-2017 if you have a concern that I have not addressed please contact me at 563-4128 or deanward4@msn.com.

Seniors: I fully understand that seniors are the backbone of this community, the people that worked hard for many years, paid their taxes, raised their families and made this community what it is today.

Recognizing this, a number of years back council passed a motion to put $100,000 a year aside for future upgrades of the York Creek Lodge, this year council choose not to do that, they took that money to balance their books. For the next four years, I will support this important commitment to our seniors. Suddenly the Mayor talks about doing “more” for our seniors at the Mayor’s forum.

Town Rounder: This is a very important service for our seniors, I will commit to supporting, maintaining and if the dollars can be found expanding this service.

Recreation: I understand the importance of recreation, for six years I strongly supported the ski hill, and the creation and implementation of the walking trail program that many of us now enjoy. We must look at enhancing the present recreation programs we have and where possible find and develop new initiatives.   

Taxes: We have been told that our taxes have increased very little over the last few years that sounds good until we find out that an additional $400,000 a year is being taken out of our pockets in the form of Franchise Fees. I will not vote for a tax, franchise fee, or any other municipal tax grab that exceeds the Canadian cost of living.

Franchise Fees

2010-$295,551

2011-$374,288

2012-$569,749

2013-S682,000

Volunteers:  We all know what as happened over the last three year’s, we must stop throwing volunteers out on the street. We must recognize the efforts of all volunteers who build so much of what we have in this community not just the present volunteers  but also the past and the future.   

Respect: We all need to respect each other more, that starts at the top, Mayor, Council and administration must lead by example. The days of calling taxpayer’s names in the municipal newsletter must come to an end.

Labor Relations: A recent study conducted jointly by the Municipality and our CUPE local indicates that morale is at an all time low we are now seeing the worse relationship ever between management and our employees. The new Council should direct the CAO to deal with this issue quickly and effectively, these are the people that provide us with essential services that we all enjoy and need.

Administration: The Crowsnest Pass now as the largest administration it as ever had, this is not sustainable without increasing taxes or cutting programs. The CAO is bringing to the next council an immediate request for an HR administrator this position as not been budgeted for in the 2014 budget. Next council must determine its priorities as far as administration to reduce the costs involved. Yes that means finding the dollars in the present administration budget for the much needed HR person, administration cost will not increase.

Development:  We must determine why developers are not building in the Crowsnest Pass; Council should sit down with developers and builders and get their input as to what the municipality can do to make the Crowsnest Pass a more attractive choice for new development.  

Change: The number one issue that as been raised with me during my election campaign is “Change” the Crowsnest Pass will change, there is no doubt. As long as the vast majority of people feel that they have had “change” rammed down their throat they will not embrace it and become a part of it. Moving forward the public needs to be informed of change, the consequences of change and most importantly are provided the opportunity to be a part of change.   

Choices: We all get to make a choice on Oct 21; I know people will think long and hard about the various candidates. Please remember one thing the provincial government made very clear during the Municipal Inspection that this community will have to live with the choices it makes for the next four years.

Annexation: As been handled terribly, all we have done is upset our neighbors; the Mayor stated at the forum that what upset Ranchlands was that one of the previous two councils from the Pass. Made a threat to dissolve the Pass and force Ranchlands to take us over. Well first of all I sat in several meeting with Ranchlands and I never heard that threat made, second of all that would be such a dumb threat nobody can dissolve the Crowsnest Pass except the Minister of Municipal Affairs, and like wise nobody but that same Minister can force a municipality to absorb another community. The reality is the Mayor and his actions upset our neighbors in typical desperate fashion he is looking for somebody to blame.    

My name is Dean Ward, I am committed to working hard to make the Crowsnest Pass successful and maintain a community that we can all afford to live in.

On Oct 21 Vote for Dean Ward 

Viability Study-Dissolution-Fear Factor

First of all the recommendation of council looking at a viability study was just that a recommendation, next council does not have to go down that path unless Municipal Affairs forces it which as never been implied. From 2006 to 2011 there were 18 municipal dissolution studies conducted which resulted in five villages being dissolved and thirteen were not.
The villages that were dissolved were population wise very small and absorbed by counties surrounding them with much larger populations in most cases ten to thirty times larger.
They were:
Village of Sangudo pop 398 absorbed by Lac Ste Anne County pop 10260
Village of Thorhild pop 478 absorbed by County of Thorhild pop 3417
Village of Kinuso pop 231 absorbed by M.D of Big Lakes pop 5912
Village of New Sarepta pop 401 absorbed by Leduc County pop 13541
Village of Derwent pop 111 absorbed by County of Two Hills pop 3160

Of the thirteen municipalities that did not dissolve they ranged in size from the village of Gadsby with 25 people up to the Town of Falher with 1075 people.

I am not suggesting for a moment that we as residents, or future council's should not take seriously the issue of strengthening this community. But let's not lose sight of the facts all the communities that participated in the studies between 2006 and 2011 were significantly smaller than the Crowsnest Pass, of those two thirds did not dissolve, and finally of all five that did dissolve they were taken in by neighbors with much larger populations than themselves. Certainly an option we do not have.

Some items to think about before you vote.

• The new Image, we are in the process of spending in excess of $300,000 to put in place the new brand, logo, banners etc.

• The hidden “tax” Franchise Fees have increased from $295,000 in 2010 to almost $700,000 in 2013

• Crowsnest Centre the Mayor announces in his Mayor’s Corner Oct 17,2012 “The new Hotel, Restaurant truck stop complex is a go!”

• June 25,2013 Council is informed that Medican has backed out of the hotel deal

• July 23,2013 Council votes to pay $50,000 to purchase Best Western name for Group Vachon.

• Sept 2013, Workplace Assessment Report  “"While many express that this relationship has, historically, not been "perfect", the theme is that, currently, the relationship is the "worst it has ever been". “The majority of employees indicated they are experiencing significantly high levels of stress in this workplace. Longer term employees stated "morale is lower than they can remember".

• We now have the largest and most expensive administration in our history the Russell Farmer report recommends “The municipality continues to rationalize its operations looking for opportunities to create greater efficiencies and effectiveness not only in operations but in administration as well”

• Russell Farmer identifies crucial areas of concern “High rate of turn over in management particularly the CAO, and the impact of the high rate of turn over on the municipality’s ability to provide effective and efficient service” In the last three years we have had three CAO’s plus seven other changes in various administrative positions the most in any term of council since 1979.

• Russell Farmer crucial area of concern “Communication within the organization and with residents which has resulted in a lack of trust in the community and in the organization”.

• Russell Farmer High Tax Rate; “Crowsnest Pass’s mill rate has increased by 8.3 percent in the past two years which is a significant increase in the mill rate”

• March 6,2012 Thunder in the Valley is deferred for one year

• October 2012, Fire Chief terminated, large numbers of volunteers leave the Fire Department   

• Budget 2013 Council after a significant miscalculation on the assessment base eliminates the $100,000 commitment to the York Creek Lodge to balance the municipal budget. 

Let’s talk about the Mayor Forum and some class.

This afternoon I made a mistake at approximately 4pm I was send a link to a video on Youtube of a alleged conversation between our Mayor and his council. I posted that link probably a rash decision done in haste, at 6pm I checked that link again and there were further conversations posted about an alleged deal where a councilor had a invoice from the municipality that was written off. My response at this point was “holy shit” this is bad so I deleted the link.

Took my wife to the Mayor’s forum where she and I sat for two hours listened respectively to each person speak applauded and paid attention to where everybody stood on the issues. In the closing comments the Mayor decided that he was going to make an example of me. He choose to talk about the new lows of politics and invited everybody to check out Dean Ward’s blog and see the American style attack ad. Well I was a little shocked that a man who spent the better part of laughing his head of every time somebody said something contrary to his positions for three hours last night at the councilor’s forum, would slam somebody else about class.

I was especially upset when I saw Ed Strembicki stand up last night (actually somebody I have grown to  respect a lot over the last six months) and speak about how he did not appreciate the Mayor calling him a CAVER and a REDNECK, then I looked across the room and saw the Mayor hysterically laughing another a new low in politics. That’s class.

Let’s talk about the incumbent councilor, I have attended 95% of the council meeting in the last three years and watched this incumbent stick up his hand and usually start with. “Well all the questions I was going to ask have already been asked but I will ask something really insignificant to the conversation now”. At the same time watching some of the other councilor's smirk or roll their eyes. Suddenly he is standing up at the forums asking more questions than he as asked in the last three years. If you were that concerned about this community and that much in support of your "team" why are you not running? And yes Mr Rosner’s assessment of the way he worked the crowd was bang on.

Back to the start well if the man, that I watched attack the press in a bully type approach because they were not "accurately" reporting his council meetings then gave them no chance to respond. That attacked residents at public forums at the Elks Hall because they disagreed with his directions. That attacked anybody that disagreed with him in his newsletters with childish name calling, wants to talk about my level of class go ahead.
Then tonight he attacks and attempts to embarrass me in front of the most important person in my life go ahead. I hope you feel like a hero, but to you I say the people that matter will pass judgment on Oct 21^st. To the incumbent councilor you put up the good fight for your "team" but obviously you could no longer stand the heat in the kitchen.

P.S it was a neat trick to burn up my three questions quickly last night and then have one of your supporters attack me about a tax increase in 2008, (that I did not support) and leave me with no opportunity to respond.

To the residents of the Crowsnest Pass Thank you for your support.

Debbie and Dean    

Election Poll update

I took down the poll on Sept 27, I will be putting it back on Oct 14 and we will compare the results from the two polls on October 18.

The results on Sept 27 in alphabetically order:

Mayor:

Decoux  27  14%
Painter  141  72%
Prince    27   14%

Councillors:

Anctil  111
Filipuzzi 113
Gallant  42
Glavin   74
JaegerBaird  41
Juhlin  39
Kovach  148
Lazzarotto  145
Londsbury  29
Mitchell  21
Saindon  36
Saltarelli  10
Strembicki  71
Thompson  8
Ward   141

Now I know this is not scientific but this is how the readers of my blog voted.

Dean Ward Candidate for council 2013

Below is the information I handed out at the Ratepayers meeting Wednesday night about where I stand heading into this election and some of the issues that I feel are important to this community and it's residents.

                             Election 2013         -       Dean Ward

My name is Dean Ward  and I am very pleased to have this opportunity to ask for your vote in the upcoming election.

I am very proud to be the husband of Debbie, father of three and proud grandfather of two beautiful girls. I have been living in the Crowsnest Pass for 31 years.

I sat on the Historical society board for three years; currently I am a member of the Crowsnest Pass Health Foundation. In addition, I have six years experience sitting on council, which makes me very familiar with municipal budgets and all the other duties expected of a Councilor.

Crowsnest Pass is a great place to live and we are surrounded by nothing but pure natural beauty. We have great schools, a hospital and many other amenities.  But the most important, we have great people.

We do have challenges: a declining population, the oldest population in Alberta, high percentage of residents on a fixed income, and one of the lowest commercial/industrial tax bases in the province 

 In 2010 this community voted for change, but how much and how fast should have been the question.

Strategic Plan was put together in 2011 by mostly people that do not live here. It has many good recommendations, but it was always Council’s plan and it was never “our plan.” The Mayor tells the media “now that a lot of hard work has been done, they can move on to more sophisticated work” when, where and what he is hoping to do to us sometime later.

My positions moving forward 2013-2017

Taxes : Government’s job should be to minimize costs, not maximize revenues. Many of our residents live on a fixed income that never increases by more than the cost of living. I will work very hard to ensure that all municipal taxes, franchise fees, utility costs, permits, fines etc do not increase by more than the cost of living at the most.

Smaller Government: We cannot afford to have an administration that costs us well in excess of $1 million dollars a year. One out of every five homes pays taxes each year just to finance Council’s “Dream Team”.

Seniors-York Creek Lodge is a valuable asset for this community that is in dire need of up grading. Previous council had passed a motion putting aside $100,000 a year to prepare for that future opportunity. This year six months into the budget process administration realized that they had totally miscalculated the tax base, scrambling council agreed to balance the budget by dropping the $100,000 to the Lodge.

Seniors-Town Rounder is one of the unique services the municipality provides to its seniors. After the last driver retired, his position as only been filled by a temporary employee and this concerns me. I will commit to support and maintain this service if elected.  

Frivolous Spending: Our municipal brand/logo, sadly at the same time council cut the $100,000 contribution to the lodge, they approved an expenditure of over $300,000 to hire an expensive consultant to throw together numerous triangles, to build entrance signs, to put up banners and to put this mess on every piece of municipal equipment and stationary. Can anybody explain to me how the logo relates to the Crowsnest Pass?

Consultants: Will we ever really know how much money we have spent on consultants over the last three years? Now we have another one conducting a Recreation study. Our recreation board could have designed a survey, made it available to our residents and gathered the results at the municipal office?    

Peace Officer Program: We were originally told that the project would pay for itself because the municipality anticipated an Automatic Traffic Enforcement program would be put into place. They were wrong. Do we really need two peace officers to enforce bylaws and educate the local residents? We need a full disclosure on what this program is really costing us. As our reputation grows as a speed trap, the revenues will only decrease, but the costs will remain.

Employee Morale: The level of the relationship between the municipal staff and management as sunk to an all time low, so low, that a consultant was brought in to look at the situation. This did not come about over the last two weeks, the next council needs to direct and demand that administration sit down with CUPE and resolve this quickly.

Communications: Newsletters are good until we have our representatives insulting us. Town hall meeting are great until they are used as a tool to attack and embarrass the people that pay the bills. Next council should communicate both professionally and in town hall meeting where council “listens” to the public’s input. Some how in the last year over 2500 residents felt that council was not listening?

Hotels: I will demand that next council not spend $50,000 or any amount to purchase a franchise for a private company, and let’s get the first hotel built before we start fantasizing about a second one.

Housing Affordability: Most elections, we hear candidates speaking about affordable housing. So many of our residents are seniors on a fixed income we need to keep our housing “affordable”. Municipal government cannot control the costs of everything in society; but there are some things they can. To vote to keep tax increases down while at the same time taking substantially more money from our residents in the form of Franchise Fees, Utility bills and every other dollar we can take out of your pocket achieves nothing for the average taxpayer.  

  On October 21, vote for Dean Ward

Any questions, comments or concerns please contact Dean at 563-4128 or deanward4@msn.com

Do you want it or not?

One of my readers posted the following comment. I think it is apparent where this group is going if re-elected the key question over the next four weeks is this what this community really wants for the next four years?

Mayor Decoux “now that a lot of hard work has been done, they can move on to “more sophisticated work”.

Larry Mitchell “he hopes to be re-elected to finish the things council started and to create a future by not dwelling in the past”

Jerry Londsbury “council needs to finish the initiatives of the strategic plan. A lot of thought and work went into it. It would be nice to run it through to completion.”

Brian Gallant “council started a lot of initiatives to help improve the community and wants to see them through”

Emile Saindon “he wants to continue working for the residents of the municipality and to finish what council started”

Seems like a fairly common theme here, I fully expect that strategic plan 2 will be much worse than 1. With the team above he would certainly have the tools to carry number 2 through.

I think the choices in our election are becoming much clearer. 

Candidates Comments

Joni MacFarlane is back, great article with some interesting comments from all of the council candidates.

Crowsnest election candidates come forward 

http://www.crowsnestvoice.com/2013/09/crowsnest-election-candidates-come.html#more


After you have read the article please take the time to vote on the very informal polls on the right hand side.

Nomination Day, the race has begun.

Well as of noon today the nomination period as closed. To probably nobody's surprise the candidates for Mayor are the following:

The Incumbent Bruce Decoux and challengers in alphabetically order Blair Painter and John Prince.

The choices for Council a whole lot more complicated just because there are a lot of choices. (surprisingly less candidates than last election)

The Incumbents that decided to run:

Brian Gallant
Jerry Londsbury
Larry Mitchell
Emile Saindon

The challengers for the six councillor positions:

Marlene Anctil
Dave Filipuzzi
Doreen Glavin
Sasha JaegerBaird
Timothy Juhlin
William Kovach
Shar Lazzarotto
Paul Saltarelli
Ed Strembicki
Jamie Thompson
Dean Ward

On the right hand side are a couple of polls your opportunity to pick who you would see as being successful if the election was held today. I will only leave the poll up until Friday Sept 27, then I am going to run it again the last week before the election. To see if the mood of the voters that read this blog changes based on the up coming campaign. (Please pick one for Mayor and up to six for council)

Comments are welcome if they get personal I will not published them, if you want to attack candidates positions on issues that is fine just do not make it personal.

Crowsnest Pass Municipal Inspection Part 2

My Opinion of the Inspection.

In the province of Alberta there are roughly 450 municipalities, cities, towns, villages etc of various sizes and populations.

Municipal affairs is not going to get into the business of settling local issues in all of these communities. Once they settle one how many more will they have on their hand’s?

If you want more proof of this go look at the municipal affairs site, you will see there as not been a lot of Inspections and seldom do they go in favor of the petitioners.

What we went through last night and over the previous six months in the Crowsnest Pass was a process where by the Province of Alberta through its municipal affairs department,  said local issues will be resolved at the local level through the election process.   

I understand why the ratepayers started the petition I understand why 2500 plus people signed it. We have a council that implemented “Change”, unfortunately they did too much to fast. During the last three years in my opinion they lost touch with the taxpayers, government cannot please everybody but you must have a majority of the public on your side. I believe that a lot of the 2500 were not just upset about various issues in the community but felt that council was no longer hearing them.

Back to the report things that stood out to me:

The consultant told us that council did nothing illegal, he also told us that they can hire and fire who ever they want, including volunteers, he told us they can raise taxes, and cut spending where ever they want. They can pass policies, bylaws and procedures as they see fit.

The consultant also told us we have a very limited tax base most of which is residential, he told us that a high percentage of our population are seniors on a fixed income. In addition he told us that combined our mill rate and franchise fees have increased our taxes a lot. He told us that council and administration have done a poor job communicating with the employee’s, with the public and at times even with each other (especially when it comes to the issue of change). He told us that labor relations at the municipality are poor, that the relationship between management and CUPE is strained to say the least.   

The consultant also told us that this community should look at the possibility of a “viability study” the possible breakup of the present municipality. The consultant feels that the Crowsnest Pass as never come together as one community since amalgamation in 1979. I disagree with that, as one speaker so passionately stated last night every time there as been a need for this community to come together they have. I doubt for a moment that any future council will take that approach, would any of our rural MD neighbors want to take on any part of the Crowsnest Pass? I doubt that to.  

What Russell Farmer and the Province have told us, just five days prior to nominations closing and thirty three days prior to the election is you the residents of the Crowsnest Pass all have a opportunity to agree with or against council during the upcoming election process.   

The report as really made this whole process simple if you agree with what as happened here over the last three years re-elect this council or like minded individuals. If you disagree with what as happened then you better look at the alternatives.

Think long and hard before you make your choice on Oct 21^st, because if in two years you are not happy I think the Province as made it very clear you will be wasting your time looking to them to solve your problems   

Election 2013 Another one joins the race

Well it is official tonight the first of the incumbents Larry Mitchell announced  his intention to run in the upcoming election. Surprisingly during previous council terms most members of council stated if they would run or not at the last meeting prior to nomination day. Any way not one other member of council gave any hint of their intentions (other than Councilor Saje who had mentioned months back that he would not be running)

Election 2013 Dean Ward announces Candidacy

Below is the press release I provided to today's  Pass Herald regarding my official announcement to offer myself as a candidate for the upcoming election. If you have any idea's, concerns, questions or just want to help my information is at the bottom of the release.  

My name is Dean Ward I am very please to announce that I will be running for the position of councilor in the upcoming election October 21^st.

I am very proud to be the husband of Debbie, father of three and proud grandfather of two beautiful girls. I have been a resident of the Crowsnest Pass for 31 years, I previously sat on the Historical society board for three years, currently I am sitting on the Crowsnest Pass Health Foundation. 

One of my greatest assets is experience I sat on council for six years (2004-2010), very few people can claim to have participated in six municipal budgets, my experience will become even more valuable if the next council is comprised of a majority of members that have never sat on council previously.

2010 this community voted for change, change is inevitable and will happen whether we want it or not. The questions with change are always, what, how much, and how fast. Moving forward the next council must focus on involving the community and allow the residents to have input and steer the directions of future changes.

The strategic plan of 2011 was put together by a group of people that do not live in the Crowsnest Pass for the most part. It lacked local support right from the beginning, the public was never given the opportunity to be a part of this plan. Even though the plan had some very good recommendations, it was never “our plan” it was councils.     

The greatest challenges we face in the Crowsnest Pass is the fact that we have no tax base, after the closure of the Devon Gas Plant approximately 10% of our tax base is commercial/industrial. Ninty cents of every dollar raised by the municipality comes from residential taxpayers. According to the last Canada Census on average we have the oldest citizens in the province of Alberta, in simple terms every time we increase the burden on our taxpayers, we make it less affordable for seniors to live here.  

If  you choice to vote for Dean Ward you will be choosing a candidate that believes very strongly in the following:

Fiscal responsibility, I will not brag about small tax increases for the next four years while at the same time taking an extra $400,000 a year out of the taxpayers pockets by increasing Franchise Fees a whooping 230% over three years. I will bring forth a bylaw that only allows the municipality to increase Taxes, Franchise Fees, Utilities, Permits, Fines all forms of revenue by a maximum of the annual Canadian cost of living rate. Governments job should be to minimize expenditures not maximize revenues we all must live within our means. This community does not have the luxury of being able to afford to spend $400,000 on a logo, or $50,000 to buy the rights to a Best Western brand for a private company.

Smaller government, we now employ more administrators than the Crowsnest Pass as ever had previously, with another new position currently advertised. With a staff of less than fifty employees, do we really need nine administrators, when you add up all the salaries, benefits, vehicles, cell phones, computers etc we will be spending in excess of $1.2 million a year. To put that in a different perspective out of the 3100 homes in our community, 600 of them will be paying taxes just to maintain our administration.

There is much more to my platform, which I will be sharing with the public over the next six weeks, I look forward to speaking to as many people as possible. If you have any questions or concerns or would like to help me with my campaign, feel free to call me at 563 4128 or email deanward4@msn.com. 

Political Forum, Crowsnest Pass

Further to my last post, just spoke to the Chamber of Commerce they will be hosting a Forum for the upcoming election October 10, 7pm at the MDM facility.
They will be contacting all candidates shortly after the nominations close on September 23.

"Before the first snow falls"

No I am not going to talk about a new Best Western hotel, opening another coal mine or annexing Ranchlands.
We are going to talk about phase 1 of the Decoux/Gallant re-election campaign. For those that have not noticed the security fences are up at the old hospital/nursing home site. A very good source tells me that the hazard material guys will start work next week, with the demolition guys a week or two behind. My source also tells me that the job will take some where around two months give or take a week. I am sure it is sheer coincidence that it could finish as early as the week of October 23.



Please take a moment and vote on the new poll on the right hand side.

Forensic Audit in the Crowsnest Pass

Have not got all the details yet but a number of sources have told me that the Municipality is having a Forensic Audit conducted on the previous Fire Departments.

In a week when the powers to be let it slip that the CAO is meeting with Council behind closed doors on a regular basis to provide council with an update on relevant issues. (Can you picture all of council sitting quietly while the CAO recites from a piece of paper not one word of debate, discussion or resolutions coming forth) why not just do what the Cuff report recommended and hold two G+P meeting a month then Council and Admin could actually discuss the issues instead of  having one way communications with the CAO.

Now back to the audit we all know several things:

The election is only five months away, we know most of the present council will be running in the election, we also know that so far out of the three big promises for the community. Quebec manufacturer, Coal mine, Best Western hotel, the first failed the second is years away best case scenario, and the hotel as had deadlines extended twice already, even an optimist would have a hard time believing that the centre site will be cleared by August 30.

Next look at what this council has done over the last three years:

Built a large and expensive administration, wrote more unpopular laws than a Central American dictator, put in place CPO's, hired more consultants than IBM, jacked up Franchise Fees 300 per cent, the debacle with the Fire Departments, and the failure to listen to the public which led to 2500 people signing a petition in 18 days.

So here we are on May 11, this council needs a diversion to make everybody forget about their reign of terror, what will an audit produce? Who knows but I for one am convinced that the timing is indeed by design.

Will this act of desperation make the voters forget come October? Only they can answer that question.

They just don’t get it……… or are they?

Now both Councilors that blog have spoken plus the Mayor’s press release from last week, it appears to me that they and the rest of council are not getting the message about the petition. (See links below)

They are all welcoming Municipal Affairs, they all have nothing to hide, and the people have been misled or intimidated. I have this vision in my mind of the Mayor and Council waving their arms and telling the Minister to “bring it on”.

Personally, I do not and I think most people would agree expect Municipal Affairs to send somebody in here that is going to find massive incidents of fraud or other criminal activity.

We all know that we have had petitions in the Crowsnest Pass before; they failed for one reason or another. From the research, I have done other communities that have been involved in petitions some succeeded some failed. I cannot find one other community where such a high percentage of the population signed a petition so fast. In less than twenty days, every second voter in this community signed the petition.

Does that not say something? The message Council and administration should be getting, is that the taxpayers are not happy. Rome was not built in a day and yes people will accept “change” it always a matter of how much and how fast.

Some people say to me that this Council due to some of their member’s arrogance, naivety, or just plain state of denial will never get the taxpayers message. We should not lose sight of the fact that since the petition was presented to Municipal Affairs, the municipality has changed course on a number of issues, removing the Swimming Pool Authority, The Quint Ladder truck, Franchise Fees. What is next? May be we will all be seduced with the ultimate in vote buying a smaller tax increase.   

Weather they are getting the message or not one thing they will not be able to beat is time. All politicians find out that the same people that put them in power can remove them just has fast. Come October 22, 2013 people will analysis the results, some people will be very happy and some will claim the voters were misled, intimidated or any other excuse that makes the speaker feel better.    

http://emilesaindon.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/its-been-awhile-2/#comments

http://briangallant.ca/wordpress/2012/11/03/the-other-side-of-the-petition/