Editor:
Irene Brautigan’s lament about the lack of economic forecast in the Town of Canmore may contain some valid points but it includes a fundamentally false assumption. No government, on the whole, operates on business models found within the private sector, and no public administration will, in all honesty, even try.
Even in Detroit, which is caught in the throes of the bankruptcy, you would hear very little about basing the city’s budget on a forecast based on business realities but on selling artistic assets Detroit bought in better times.
The politicians do not own the city like a businessperson owns his or her enterprise. They, and the administration do not need to seek profit or to break even.
They have power to create and manipulate budgets, increase income by increasing taxes and generally operate in an environment of guaranteed income. Of course they do it with other people’s money.
Because of that, the need for a specific master plan would appear unnecessary and redundant. Most importantly, people running Canmore do not face the competition for providing services unless the town allows for it.
In respect to the mentioned costs associated with the renos to the old library, one could ask how the process worked in arriving at the sum of almost $2.4 million dollars. On that point, municipal politicians and administrations are notoriously secretive.
Here in Calgary, we have been waiting for almost ten years to see the final cost for repairs to the Centre Street Bridge, as well for the final tally in the Peace Bridge.
When politicians are spending other people’s money, timely explanations are obviously not necessary.
Finally, there is one more major difference why the government can not operate on principles found in the private business.
Whereas private company has one boss, any level of government constantly operates with two competing sides, the administration and the elected officials. They represent competing interests, quite often very conflicting on many levels.
The Council relies heavily on the performance of the administration, its expertise and knowledge. It bases its decisions on the advice it gets and it may have approved the cost on an honest estimate. It may not be a popular, perhaps not even a right decision but that is the process given to municipal representatives.
Perhaps, then we could propose that a chief town administrator faces the electorate every four years. That way we could re-establish at least some control over the interests and power of the town’s bureaucracy.
Zdenek Kutac,
Calgary
