Tuesday’s Guelph Tribune article titled Residents Can Help Cut Taxes stated “One city councillor says that if citizens protesting a possible 2009 tax hike want to help the city reduce it, they should tell councillors where they would accept service cuts.” This very subject has weighed on my mind for some time, and I have some suggestions to offer. I shall, however, try to be brief, as I’m sure you’ll have plenty of emails, letters and phone calls to sort through.
First of all, I firmly believe that it is time for government to get back to basics. Government on all levels, including municipal government, should be asking itself “should we (government) be providing this service?” If the service is not good for all, and/or can be provided by private industry, then government should simply make it possible for the service to be provided, but not actually do the providing. For example, if I wanted to travel from Guelph to Kitchener, and did not have my own transportation, I would have the options of a taxi, charter bus such as Greyhound, or finding a ride with a friend. Why should this be any different for transportation within the city? The City should stop providing bus service & leave it to private industry. If that were not to happen, then increased bus fares should be the order of the day. It’s costing me more to run my car now, why shouldn’t it cost someone else more to take the bus?
My second suggestion is to increase user fees. If certain people want community centres, swimming pools and ice rinks, let them pay for it, the same as they would pay for entrance to a movie theatre or amusement park. Once user fees are increased, city funding to these areas should be decreased, or, in some cases, eliminated entirely. Areas which could be reduced are:
* Arts & Heritage (Guelph Museums). If people think these are important, and they want them, tell them to get involved, donate money and/or conduct fundraising. If there isn’t sufficient interest to keep these afloat, sorry, but you can’t keep everything.
* Various facilities such as swimming pools and skating rinks.Areas that could be eliminated from City funding are:
* The River Run Centre (let it pay for itself like a movie theatre does)
* Day Camps (let people take care of their own children – stop asking everyone else to do it for them)
* Community Groups (if communities want them, let them organize & fund them)
* Skateboard parks or the mobile skateboard thing that sets up in the summer (or any facility that caters to a specific group)
* New constructions, such as the proposed/planned ice rink in front of the new City Hall
* Sidewalk snow removal (this is done poorly, and isn’t done after the wind blows the snow back (only after the initial snowfall), so why do it?)My third suggestion is increased by-law enforcement resulting in increased fines. For example, you can pick any weekend you like and stand beside the trails near my residence and watch an extraordinary amount of yard waste being dumped alongside the nature trails. Yet the City misses out on a source of revenue – nobody is there to fine the people doing it. Frequent parking enforcement (without waiting for a complaint) could also nab a great deal of money. And if people didn’t like this, all they’d have to do is stop breaking the laws! This actually brings up another issue I have with the City, and that is its priorities to its law-abiding citizens. For example, if I wanted to get rid of a large piece of furniture, I would have to take time off work to personally go to one of the locations to purchase a Bulky Item Ticket (they close at 4:00), where I can pay by cash or cheque only (heaven forbid we be allowed to use something convenient like a credit or debit card). Then, when I get home, I have to call to arrange a pickup (when I did this, I found out that the pickup was always on my regular scheduled garbage pickup day anyway, since that’s when the truck is in the area). That’s an awful lot of hassle to conform to the City’s garbage & recycling program. Yet, if I were to break the law and park illegally – why, look! I can pay the thing online, using my MasterCard or Visa!! The City is making it convenient for law breakers, yet inconveniencing its law abiding citizens?!? That, in a word, is absurd.
That is as short as I can make my suggestions. For too long, government has tried to do too much, taking on responsibilities it shouldn’t have. It’s time to get back to the basics of governing. I would be available and willing to discuss any of this in more detail should you so desire. SA