Dear editor,
As the municipal election approaches, Rocky View County residents would be wise to consider the County's current debt and the abject failure of the current council to do anything about it.
The clear reality is that responsible finance is the single most important duty of all levels of government. This is just as true for RVC as it is for our provincial and federal governments. For that matter, it holds true for all levels of government everywhere across the globe.
Health care, education, infrastructure, recreational services, etc. all have one basic commonality – they all cost money. Those who can afford it have infinitely better services and significantly better lives than those who can't. There are a variety of circumstances, some foreseen and some not, that make it reasonable for a government to incur and/or increase its debt. Nevertheless, that government must pay down or pay off that debt as soon as possible. To neglect to do so is at the government's own peril – or at least at the peril of its citizens.
I do believe the clear majority of RVC residents are of the definite opinion that RVC's , Alberta's and Canada's debt were all far too high, even in the pre-Covid days. While many believe the provincial and federal COVID expenses were overdone, the pandemic did nevertheless cause the provincial and federal governments to drastically increase debt.
But RVC has no such excuse. In the case of our County, its simply the matter of Couns. McKylor, Schule, Boehlke, Gautreau, Henn and Kamachi neglecting their major function of financial prudence.
RVC's debt originally ballooned 15 years ago over the East Rocky View Water and Wastewater System. The intention was to have a massive development in east RVC. Despite having been warned that such a massive development would not take place, the County proceeded. The end result was very little development, but massive debt – debt that still has not been properly addressed.
But at least the council of the day did express a clear interest in cost recovery, however impractical such cost recovery may have been. Its still a lot better than our current council, where six members – McKylor, Schule, Boehlke, Gautreau, Henn and Kamachi – often don't even allow cost recovery discussions to take place.
West Balzac was just a gift of almost $10 million. On various subsequent development proposals, our three responsible councillors – Wright, Hanson and Kissel – did request details on cost recovery. Couns. McKylor, Schule, Boehlke, Gautreau, Henn and Kamachi had no interest in such discussions, so the entire matter of cost recovery was ruled out of order.
The bottom line is, nobody knows. RVC's finances proceed on the same basis as the heavily indebted individual doing nothing about his or her situation other than hoping to win the next lottery .
To re-elect any of the aforementioned six is at our own peril. This may be exponentially true for Springbank and Bearspaw, as those communities pay a disproportionately large amount of RVC's tax. At least Bearspaw has a responsible council member, who has consistently displayed concern over finances. Springbank has no such luxury.
Jerry Arshinoff
Division 2
