Dear De-facto Municipal Governments That Take Their Orders From U.N. N.G.O.s – No, Not Just The City of Airdrie
Mutterings And Murmurs . Poly Tics . Social Studies
To Our Public Servants, Elected or Not,
Optics can be defined as a branch of physics that studies electromagnetic radiation, heat, color, light and their interactions with matter, and instruments used to gather information from these interactions. Fundamentally, optics is the study of light and sight.
Recently, during the development and deployment of politically correct speech, optics can be defined as the aspects of words, action, policy, or decisions that relate to public perceptions. In ‘modern’ politics, elected and un-elected public servants should be judged, not by their actions but the first impression their actions make. Most often this new parlance is weaponized to control a narrative or popular opinion to gain and hold power and enact policy and legislation that may not be in the best interests of citizens, whether they are made aware of them or not.
‘Taxation without representation’ is a term, slogan or situation that is most often associated with American colonials used against British rulers. Taxation without representation refers to a populace that is required to pay taxes or increased fees and penalties to a government authority without having any say in that government’s policies.
Let’s examine the optics of recent developments in the City of Airdrie. Using recently altered or enhanced formulas for calculating property assessments, The City of Airdrie has unilaterally imposed a 6% property tax increase on an already heavily overtaxed working class property owners. This while bemoaning the new provincial infrastructure funding framework as ‘disheartening’ and as construction began on a $65 million multiuse facility and library that will no doubt experience cost overruns. Whether this project was actually needed or had approval based on some other metric should be examined in detail. To add to the higher cost of ‘The ‘Airdrie Advantage’, Citizens of Airdrie have also experienced an increase in natural gas and electricity rates. Further, The City of Airdrie has unilaterally imposed utility rate hike of 5% without actually improving any of these services. Most notable are the 10% increase in water and waste collection fixed daily charge of 10% and 13% respectively. Do we hear water management and waste removal enhancements coming?
The extra burden of these tax and rate hikes on citizens can not be overstated. The last four years of economic and social hardship has taken its toll on family and personal incomes. The common folk, especially pensioners and seniors are rarely able to increase their incomes to accommodate unchecked inflation and taxation.
Not so for elected and un-elected public servants. It’s notable that City of Airdrie mayor and councilors were recently entitled to and ‘awarded’ 10% pay rises that coincidentally and conveniently cover the tax and utility rate increases they imposed on the citizens they serve. The Chief Administrative Officers’ 2022 first quarter projected compensation is published to be $707,300 annually. This substantial cost should be explained in detail. The total cost of other compensation and benefits, including per diem perks for elected and un-elected public servants is not transparent. It should be, and not require a FOIA request.
Given that The City of Airdrie is not a representational council for ridings, districts or the citizens in them, the question remains of who our public servants really work for. If they are able to negotiate financial advantages for themselves while imposing a higher cost of living against the people they are supposed to serve without transparency and accountability, there is need for change.
Sincerely, With Others,
Al Neitsch
Windsong, Airdrie
Alberta, Canada
‘Taxation without representation is tyranny’
A slogan of the American Revolutionary War from years before. The colonists (common folk) were not allowed to choose representatives to parliament in London, which passed the laws under which they were taxed. To be taxed only with the consent of one’s defacto? representatives in Parliament was a particularly cherished right of the people under English law, a right dating back to Magna Carta in the thirteenth century. Each additional tax caused fresh resentment among the colonists. Taxation without representation is one of the principal offenses of Britain listed in the American Declaration of Independence. The very fine line between the lip service being given to preserving Democracy and the onset of authoritarian collectivism has long been broken.
Chestermere mayor calls inspection report ‘distortion of facts’
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/chestermere-mayor-calls-inspection-report-distortion-of-facts-1.6331220
The connection between the MOMA and the municipality of Chestermere affair bears further scrutiny. Might a follow-up article be titled ‘How Bad Does A Ministry Have To Be To Get Fired?’