Editor:
When the news broke that the Provincial Conservative Party will have to go into debt to pay for its latest infrastructure projects, I couldn’t help but think of what is going on here in Canmore and how we are contributing to that debt.
We all know the federal Conservatives under Stephen Harper have run deficits, and spent money they don’t have ever since they have taken control of Canada’s government. The Town of Canmore is millions of dollars in debt. So as I bike past Elevation Place every day to work I realize that the whole facility is not paid for and is being built with money that nobody has.
Canmore is a great town and we all love living here. But I feel there is an attitude among Canmore’s politicians that the sky is the limit when it comes to spending. That not having enough money is no reason to stop projects being built while they are in office. Spend the money now and pass on the debt for these projects to our kids and grandkids to pay for.
When I grew up in Canmore there was no pool at all. We had to drive to Banff to go for swimming lessons. Then a pool was built which I feel is totally adequate for a town of our size. How our current pool that is only around 20 years old is now no longer good enough for Canmore, I think is so wasteful. I look at the library downtown and to me it’s in a nice building and in a great location for everybody.
Since we are now building a climbing gym at Elevation Place, a resident of Canmore who contributed enormously to the climbing youth of the Bow Valley had to close his climbing gym and move out of Canmore.
Don’t get me wrong, I would rather tax dollars go to a building like Elevation place than the billions of dollars spent in Canada’s war in Afghanistan or fighter jets that cost $80 million for one plane. As Canada’s federal Conservatives, the Province of Alberta’s Conservative government, and the Town of Canmore continue to put us further and further in debt I become increasingly frustrated.
Today, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are running advertisements paid for by the Canadian taxpayers defending oil companies. Here in Canmore, the municipal and provincial government allowed a wildlife corridor and forest to be destroyed for a golf course to be built, only to see that golf course go bankrupt. Then on the other side of the valley they permanently closed a 30-centimetre-wide bike trail for a wildlife corridor after they allowed a golf course and two developments to be built in that same corridor.
I have friends in Golden B.C., whose kids are in swim racing and would love to have an indoor pool for their kids to use. All I can say is “come to Canmore. We have a perfectly good pool that we are going to fill with concrete, have no idea now what we’re going to do with that building and then spend millions of dollars we don’t have to build a newer facility.”
I support having a pool, gym, climbing gym and library in Canmore. I just feel that what we have is good enough, and we don’t need to go into more debt because we would like better facilities. Hopefully in the next federal, provincial, and municipal elections we hold these politicians accountable for their wasteful spending.
John Everts,
Canmore
