I am writing in response to Roger Trottier's
letter, City of Greater Sudbury, no thanks
Now, let me set the record straight. Yes, the
Silver Seven did work to create a single municipality out of
eight municipal councils of the former Regional Municipality of
Sudbury. We believed then, and do now, that getting rid of the
seven area councils and one regional council would put to
better use the tax dollars to be saved through amalgamation.
The idea was to improve services for the common good of all
citizens regardless of where they live.
How can anyone not support a concept that
would reduce eight councils to one, and some 60-odd councillors
to 13, eight chief administrative officers, eight collections
of municipal buildings and duplicated staffs?
Why would a population of 155,000 need eight
municipal maintenance crews and office staffs, eight or more
equipment shops and eight times of all sorts of other overhead
costs such as trucks, cars and machinery, and the list goes on
and on?
The whole idea of restructuring was to save
money and free up resources to make the new City of Greater
Sudbury a place for growth. So, why is that not
happening?
The answer is simple. The electorate put in
office a group of people determined to see the amalgamation
fail. These are people who look to the past, not to a positive
future with great potential.
They ignored recommendations of the
transition restructuring task forces that offered many, many
opportunities to save millions. They spent a million dollars
(and perhaps even more) on a failed effort to buy the gas
company.
They did not consolidate hydro-electric
services, telecommunication and water sewer services into a
single utility for an estimated saving of another million
dollars.
They hired expensive consultants to rewrite
the recommendations of the transition board then ignored that
as well, at a great expense.
They failed to create a vision, long term and
short term, and dinn't plan for change.
Ernie Checkeris
Sudbury