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Letter: Just say 'no' to wants, council

'We’re wasting our limited resources planning on building new stuff that will pay no real financial return'
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We all want our roads, streets, and sidewalks maintained. It’s the base level of municipal competency: Are we able to take care of what we have built and promised to maintain?

This is a question that many Sudbury citizens are asking, especially with further road deterioration now evident. It would seem we are so obsessed with new projects that we don’t ask the simple question: Can we afford to maintain what we already have which would include other neglected infrastructure?

We’re wasting our limited resources planning on building new stuff that will pay no real financial return, “investments” that create little in the way of new tax revenue, but give us a big maintenance hangover in the decades to come. We’re raising our taxes and borrowing from our future to literally make ourselves poorer.

Here’s the great thing for any community wanting to become stronger and more prosperous: There is nothing that forces any local government to take on negative-returning projects. You can say “no” and it’s really easy to do.

Sudbury councillors try this: “We’d love to do these 'Big Projects' like new arenas, art gallery and library (even though we already have them), but the bottom-line is, when we spend money on projects like these, that’s money we can’t spend on other things people in this community want like roads we can actually drive and pipes that keep on breaking. When we build these new things we have to maintain them, and we’re already struggling to maintain what we have. It is irresponsible to keep increasing taxes or possible future service cuts on our neighbors just because we won’t do the math."

That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now go ahead and redirect your staff. It’s a shame they spent time working on such questionable projects, but imagine what they can now do with all that time and capacity. And what other negative-returning projects are they spending time cultivating?

Just remember when you were a kid and how many times your parents said “no” to your wants, which were never really needs. Now you just have to be as responsible for the greater good of our community now and in for the future. Say “yes” to needs, and “no” to wants.

John Lindsay, 
Friendly to Seniors