This week was a good week for some housecleaning-type issues here in the valley. In the case of municipal transparency, it’s good to see the Town of Canmore has gone ahead and made the salary of its CAO public knowledge (page 38) – particularly after a couple of salary-related fiascos with past employees.
Then there are the ongoing efforts to finally wrap up construction of the Legacy Trail (page 5) and properly connect it… to something.
The Legacy Trail, which runs from Canmore through Banff to Highway 1A along the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway is but one part of the national dream that is the Trans Canada Trail (TCT).
Unlike the national dream that is the non-stop ribbon of steel that spans our great Dominion as a railway, though, the Legacy Trail has been put together in fits and starts. Sections here… sections there…
Founded in 1992, the Trans-Canada Trail (according to the website) is now 73 per cent complete, and 16,800 kilometres long. A problem with it, though, as evidenced by the Legacy Trail, is that not all of the project has been completed with a complete grand plan in mind.
TCT’s mandate as one of the largest volunteer efforts in the country, is to ‘promote and assist in the development and use of the Trans Canada Trail by supporting success at the local level in the creation of this national network.’
As one of those sections that was put in place with no tying in to other sections, the Legacy Trail, while wildly popular and a decent tourist attraction, has had issues, mostly due to its eastern access point being unsafe. To get on the trail at the Canmore/Harvie Heights end and head west, many people park in the median at Banff National Park’s east gate then dash across the highway to start on the trail.
The Legacy Trail has been controversial, with some angst shared among local municipalities over completion and access, but finally an end is in sight. Plans to complete the trail through Harvie Heights into Canmore are now in place, with Alberta Transportation approval, a grant from the Province for planning and pending further funding for construction.
The thing is, the Legacy Trail runs through the valley and both Banff and Canmore do and should benefit from it. We feel the couple more million in funding needs to be split among the federal and provincial governments and the three municipalities, as completion will benefit all.
In the case of the Canmore CAO’s salary, kudos to the Town for making it public, even posting it online. After two previous CAOs left in a shower of public dollars, it’s good the Town realized clarity is important to its citizenry.
And this type of clarity fits well with the stated increase in transparency being touted by Premier Alison Redford. We’d all appreciate more transparency, but also more restraint in spending by our provincial and federal politicos.
In the end, what voters want from their politicians, when it comes to the work they do, is what most of us do. We’d like our politicians to put in a good day’s work for a decent wage – not take advantage of a public trough the rest of us have no access to, not spend money like it’s someone else’s, not develop a sense of entitlement for the public purse.
After all, politicians don’t represent the government, they represent the voters.
