As rounds are fired off at our troops in Afghanistan, Canadians as usual are outraged at more urgent emergencies. Namely the labour dispute between a gluttonous postal workers union and an increasingly authoritarian federal government. With the innovations of electronic billing, facebook, skype, and of course basic email – it has been hard to notice even the lack of junk mail filling my usually stuffed mailbox.
Despite its staggering insignificance the strike deserves some small commentary. On Monday, there’s the possibility Conservatives will impose “back to work” legislation contrary to our inalienable right of free association and peaceful assembly. This of course would be unnecessary if Stephen Harper did a very simple thing: privatize Canada Post and open all classes of mail to competition. Oh, how CUPW would squeal at the prospect of not being able to leach off of the captive taxpayer in perpetuity. But they shouldn’t worry. Such a move would be simply too gutsy for the Tories to pull off.
Yet if the Conservatives are gung-ho enough to effectively abolish collective bargaining, why stop there? Why not just abolish Canada Post? It would be an de facto privatization, without actually being called a privatization. Surely the Tory hard core would be even happier with the abolition of the anachronistic CP than they would be at the Tories’ ultimately inconsequential tough talk about ordering posties back to work.
“Oh but the unemployment!” cries the union. But all Canadians need ask themselves is this: did the economy suffer from the firing of horse and buggy drivers?
Most Canadians already grasp a cold hard fact: Physical mail delivery is a sunset industry. As much as there will always be a demand for the delivery of large physical goods, the bulk of mail – paper, will be replaced over the internet. Even so-called junk mail — hard copy direct marketing pieces — can be delivered more economically by private flyer companies.
The idea that the benefits and pay of Canada Post workers are somehow sacrosanct regardless of technological change needs to be returned to sender, along with the insane idea that mail delivery should be a government-run monopoly. The sooner we figure this out, the sooner we can return our focus to more pressing issues.

Ross Mann, Alberta Liberty Caucus

While her first concern is one that is widely recognized, her second was somewhat less obvious to someone who isn’t a teenager.  There just isn’t enough for teens to do in Airdrie.  She pointed out that her and her friends enjoy going to the Cross Iron Mills mall, but it’s too far away.  Especially when you’ve got busy parents, who can’t drop everything to drive you to the mall.  It slipped my mind to mention that a certain local bus company wants to operate a shuttle to the mall from the city, but it did underscore a major concern that motivates our campaign: the city is not doing enough to attract businesses to Airdrie.  I don’t pretend to know exactly why the mall was built in Balzac rather than Airdrie, and I woudn’t be surprised if it was highly subsidized.  What I do know is that we need to find ways to attract more businesses here, so that there are more entertainment options that teens can take in without having to leave town.  One of the aldermanic candidates at the all candidates forum pointed out that there isn’t even a laser tag facility here.  Cochrane and Strathmore are both smaller than Airdrie, yet each have a lazer tag facility.  I can’t help but wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that both of those cities have lower non-residential taxes than Airdrie.

What struck me the most about this conversation was her comments about Genesis Place.  When she brought it up, I assumed that her comments would be entirely positive.  I was mistaken.  She said that the pool is great, but she and her friends are bored of it.  This is something that hadn’t really occurred to me.  The city put all of it’s eggs in one basket.  Plenty of people lament the fact that there isn’t a smaller scale version of Genesis Place within walking distance.  If the city hadn’t built one massive complex, this might have been feasible.  This is the trouble with the city getting involved in running businesses.  Instead of building modest facilities that fit the needs of local residents, they spare no expense to build impressive looking, though impractical facilities like Genesis Place.  I can’t help but think that had the city worked with a non-profit like YMCA to operate the project, different decisions would have been made.

The city needs to find more creative ways of ensuring that people–especially teens–have easy access to a wide variety of activities.  This shoudn’t mean putting taxpayers on the hook for a money sinks like Genesis Place.  Don’t let the city fool you.  It is a major money loser.  Not only do the “profits” it generates not take into account the capital costs of the facilities (or depreciation), but it also doesn’t take into account that 25% of it’s memberships are paid for by the taxpayers, since city employees and council members receive “free” memberships.  What I would like to see is the city facilitate the development of local community associations that can raise money for, and built recreational facilities.  This isn’t far fetched.  This type of thing is done in plenty of other cities.  When I lived in Toronto (please don’t hold that against me!) I was involved with my local community association.  One of the things they were able to do was acquire land, and funding for an off leash dog park.  That doesn’t sound too impressive, until you consider the cost of downtown Toronto real estate.  There’s no reason why we couldn’t do the same here.  I have heard from dozens of people that the city more dog parks, not to mention more rinks.  With a small number of motivated fundraisers, I am confident that the community could chip in to build some of these amenities without any funding from the city.  All they need is some land, and the legal status to oversee these projects.

This is not just my advice, but my challenge to Airdronians.  If you are discouraged by the lack of ammenities in the city, don’t lobby for the city to spend more money.  We can’t increase taxes any further, and expect private companies to race here to provide services.  If you are serious about helping to bringing a new dog park, skating rink, soccer field, or any other such facility to Airdrie, pick up the phone and give me a call.  You’ve got my number (it’s on the green flier that was handed to you or stuck in your door).  This offer stands regardless of whether Ross wins on October 18th.  Everyone on the Mann for Mayor campaign believes that the best decisions are those made at the local level.  If you share this belief, we’d love to hear from you.

Democracy is back in action in Airdrie!

Oct. 5th’s all candidate’s forum at Bert Church Theatre hosted nearly 600 residents, the most that have ever turned out.

Interested citizens took time out of their busy schedules to listen to what candidates had to say, ask questions about hot-button issues and show their support or disgust for those seeking office.

This may not seem like a huge feat, except when you take into account that last election’s voter turnout was a dismal 12 per cent. The forum in 2007 didn’t even fill Bert Church Theatre, while this year’s turnout was standing room only in the theatre, cafeteria and hallway.

It may have taken the threat of a double digit tax increase, but we are glad that something finally caught residents’ attention and spurred them to become informed about the people who represent them.

Maybe now that residents are showing interest, the Provincial government will start taking Airdrie seriously when it comes to important issues such as schools and 24-hour health care.

We also hope this interest in local government leads to greater community involvement, solidifying Airdrie’s identity and dispelling the myth that we are a bedroom community for our neighbours to the south.

We can assume all those who came to the forum will vote, but we need them to convince their friends and neighbours who didn’t attend to pick up the phone, boot up the computer or talk to the candidates face-to-face about who they are, what they stand for and what they can do to make the city of Airdrie an even better place to live.

Take matters into your own hands, get out there and vote.

This is exactly why we need to tell these career politicians to take a hike.  For all we know, this is the tip of the iceberg of corruption at City Hall.  If it took this long to figure out that someone as prominent as George Keen is getting shady handshake deals, who knows what else is happening. Are certain developers and contractors getting contracts through personal connections?  We don’t know.  What we do know is that we cannot trust the current administration.  We need to get rid of career politicians.

This is why I am running.  I’ve seen one too many politicians doing what’s best for themselves and their friends, rather than doing the right thing for their constituents.  This is also why I will pledge not to serve more than two terms, and will push to implement a two term limit on any future mayor.  Politics shouldn’t be a career.  It should be public service.  Call me old fashioned, but I believe that ordinary citizens should control City Hall, NOT the other way around.

While the report finds that Airdrie increased spending less rapidly than other municipalities, this is hardly anything to brag about. The Stelmach era has seen municipal governments flush with cash for unnecessary projects, while municipalities spent as though the good times could never end. Though Mayor Bruce took the opportunity to brag about how “lean” the city government is, the only thing the report really said was that our municipal government did less poorly than others. Not-as-bad-as-the-other-guy is not good enough. CFIB’s representative expressed fear that municipalities—including Airdrie—will experience spending growth twice as rapid as population growth. With a projected 19.5% tax increase over two years, this seems likely.

There is no reason why per person spending should increase even with population growth. This tells me that the city is not forcing developers to pay the full cost of expansion. It also tells me that the city is mismanaging spending projects. Rather than bragging about how we increased the tax burden on local families less rapidly than other cities, we need to get serious about reducing that tax burden.

I’d start out by dramatically reducing expenditures in two areas: corporate communications, and information technology. In 2006, the city had zero communications staff. Now they have two full time staff members, and spend nearly $400,000 annually. In 2008, they did the job for less than $250,000. We can cut that in half. The IT department is currently spending over $2,000,000 per year, and can barely keep a website running. Do we need 16 full time IT people at City Hall? Absolutely not. Most major companies outsource their IT department to other private companies. By doing so, we could cut the IT budget by at least 50%. My estimate is that we could reduce it by 75%, but I’ll stick to conservative estimates. Moreover, the city wouldn’t be on the hook for capital costs. The city purchased nearly $700,000 of equipment for the IT department in 2010 alone. The city currently plans to increase taxes by 19.5% over the next two years. Spending is slated to increase by $4.3 million next year. By trimming these two departments, we can come up with at least $1.3 million in savings. If we trim a mere 6% from the rest of the budget, we’ve got another $3 million in savings. That’s all we need to do to hold the line on taxes.

Some politicians will tell you it’s it would be irresponsible not to raise your taxes. I disagree. I believe that you know how to spend your own hard earned money better than politicians do. If getting value for your tax dollars is reckless, than I don’t want to play it safe. If this bothers interest groups, than so be it. We need to make city hall work for everyone, not just the politically connected. With your help, we can restore the Airdrie Advantage, and make Airdrie the best place in Alberta to live, work, and play.

Not so much: Mayor Linda Bruce lunches in Ottawa at taxpayer expense in pursuit of her ‘Absorb Airdrie Into Calgary’ Agenda.

Overheard on Wildrose MP Blake Richards’ twitter account today:

“WildRoseMPBlake Glad to host #Airdrie Mayor Linda Bruce and#Cochrane Mayor Truper McBride today for meetings in Ottawa on Regional Transit”

According to Our Worship’s own twitter postings, she was busy today hosting a breakfast, and hanging out with transit lobbyists and federal politicians.

How any of this benefits Airdronians, she does not say.

You would think our city election would be enough to focus our intrepid mayor on AIRDRIE issues.

This is because I believe outstanding service providers like Traxx should not only be allowed to freely compete for your business in Airdrie, but should be encouraged to do so.

While the word ‘lobbyist’ is often loaded, I will assume the letter writer means it in only the nicest way.

AN ADVOCATE FOR AIRDRIE BUSINESS OWNERS

That’s because I would like to plead guilty as charged:  I am an advocate for business in Airdrie — and a positive business environment used to be part of what we call the ‘Airdrie Advantage‘.

During this campaign I have been speaking to you, the business owner and local consumer.

I talk about the benefits to business of having me serve as your mayor, should I be honored with that privilege.

Things like lower taxes, cutting red tape, and generally restoring respect and fairness for business in our great city.

But now I’d like to talk about the benefits OF business for Airdronians, and why we should do everything we can to get City Hall out of our hard working local entrepreneurs’ way.

More business in Airdrie means more choice and a better quality of life for you and your family.

MORE LOCAL BUSINESS = MORE JOBS

In particular, it means more jobs: for you, your spouse or your children who should have every opportunity to develop their work ethic while going to school, without having to go all the way to Calgary, or worse, go without part time work opportunities.

Some people worry about a “youth problem” in our city.  I happen to think the best recreation for our young people is a good part time job, just like I had while growing up in Airdrie.

More jobs here in Airdrie, of course, means you save time and money commuting — something many people concerned about our environment also tell me they would like to see.

LOWER RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY TAXES

But perhaps the biggest reason I talk every chance I get about how we can create a better environment here in Airdrie for companies, is because a bigger, more prosperous business base will keep your taxes low, and enable me, as your mayor, to push to reduce property taxes even farther.

Just having lower non-residential taxes than Calgary isn’t enough to attract sustainable jobs to Airdrie. We’re also competing with Cochrane, Strathmore, Okotoks, Higher River—all but one of which have lower non-residential taxes (we barely beat Chestermere). We need to ensure that our city is run efficiently so that we can reduce our non-residential rates to attract more businesses to Airdrie.

Lower taxes, greater consumer choice and quality of life work together to improve both your standard of living and your property values. These are the things I am committed to doing for you.

Think about it:  Don’t you enjoy being able to go to, or order in from some of the really great restaurants now in town?  All the choice in groceries, convenience stores and pharmacies?  Even the coffee shops? Not to mention some of the medical and other professionals now located a few minutes from your front door?

I want to see more such choice, don’t you?

I want businesses who have come here, and will come here, to be rewarded for making all our lives better.  It may sound paradoxical, but I want to lower your property taxes by lowering theirs — which expands the tax base and enables rates to continue down.

Even with the growth of our business community, too many businesses have left, gone bankrupt, or passed us by entirely, and too many commercial spaces sit empty.  With your help I will work to reverse this trend.

So am I an advocate for Airdrie business?  Would I continue to be as Mayor?  The answer to both questions is absolutely!

So please, help me help Airdrie businesses improve the quality of life for you and your family October 18th — Together we can Restore the Airdrie Advantage!

I have a message for you Airdrie residents.

The cash cow has come to a complete and udder halt. Nobody likes to hear about politics, but for Pete’s sake (and Airdrie’s), can’t you see that a 25 per cent tax increase (12.25 per cent this year and another 12.25 per cent next year) could potentially lose you the house you currently live in along with the lifestyle you’ve come to expect?

Is there any “movement” going on in our residents’ heads to make the necessary changes at city hall or are we just too apathetic to even broach the subject?

We have White Elephants all over this city that can be directly attributed to our current administration.

Have you noticed the current lineup of people running for office haven’t even touched on the fact that we are going to be in for a major “bump” in taxes?

I notice one particular individual seems to regard our city as her domain. I ask, whatever happened to public plebiscites?

It’s going to be yours and my pain … certainly not our gain.

Start getting interested in this before it’s too late.

Pick up the local papers and start making wise choices about our upcoming election.

Make your vote count for something.

B. Norman, Airdrie