Northern Life you made my day! It was cold,
windy and not very interesting to go outside. Last Friday with
the kids off from school, I guess for another PD day, my copy
of the Northern Life arrived early. Lo and behold what do we
have? A comedic article by our new mayor. If his job doesn't
pan out, he should look at writing comedy. In his article he
states, "We (cities) have assumed more and more responsibility
for services, with little or no ensuing dollars to help pay for
those services".
I am still laughing. What happened to the 50
per cent of the old education tax that came with downloading. I
guess with an almost $500,000 budget for the mayor's office in
2003 this increase in local tax revenue is "little or no
ensuing dollars."
Further in his article, the mayor suggests we
chase the will o' the wisp promises made by both Dalton
McGuilty and Paul Martin for a new deal for the cities.
Give me a break. Are we so naive that we
expected any of these politicians to actually keep these
promises?
Beside the comic relief provided by the
mayor, Northern Life had an editorial The Future Starts
Tuesday. Come on Northern Life. Can you not see what is going
on here? Prince Paul will have a Throne Speech that will
promise Canadians of every stripe something. This is all a
preview for the anticipated upcoming spring election. Like
McGuilty, I would expect any promises only to be kept if the
Liberals feel they may lose an election and actually have to
deliver on some promise they made.
Wait wait, I still have more to go. Turn the
page and what do I find? A new councillor suggesting Sudbury is
losing business, tourism and trade dollars because we do not
have a convention centre. One would think that with the huge
demand for a building like this, some private entrepreneur
would be putting up three or four of these buildings. I mean if
this councillor can use this building for one weekend a year, I
am sure there must be a demand for this type of edifice for 200
to 300 days per year in Sudbury.
I guess with "little or no ensuing dollars,"
the city will not have the funds to provide for this building
either.
Ron Minogue
Hanmer