Editor:
I wonder if anyone else has noticed a disturbing trend which has come up in the last few months?
Town administration in Canmore, at least for the 10 years I have lived here, has always led the town council and, for that matter, its citizens in policy innovation, creation and implementation.
It is also quite interesting that many of these policies are hardly ever a topic of discussion during the council’s election, but miraculously appear on council’s agenda sometime after the election. For the most part, these policies have been accepted by a succession of town councils and supported or at least tolerated by the majority of its citizens.
But recently, some of the administration’s unilateral policies have encountered considerable resistance that even the normally complacent town council is taking notice of.
The development of the former daycare lands, the delisting of the urban reserve and the recent “Two Wheels Good - Four Wheels Bad” transportation study are but recent examples of this trend.
When you combine this with the not so recent admonishment of town council by the chief administrative officer for proposing a use of the considerable surplus funds that photo radar (another town administration initiative) has amassed for a purpose she obviously did not agree with, as not in keeping with accepted accounting practices, you have an administration that is in danger of seriously overstepping its boundaries.
I wonder if the recent establishment of a Canmore Community Association is a direct result of the founding members’ not so pleasant experience of dealing with an administration that are quite prepared to listen and conduct dialogue, but not really willing to act on that dialogue if the results disagree with them.
D. G. L. Rees,
Canmore
