We have a problem with entitlement. It starts at the top federally and it continues to trickle down to the lower levels of government. It seems we, as citizens, are not privy to the decisions being made by our governments. For example, the sale of taxpayers’ properties (they call it Crown land/assets) at fire sale prices should be making ripples and waves among us, but apart from a few news stories and an opinion or two we’ve let it go. The province essentially gave away $43-million of our money to a party contributor. How many homeless people would that feed? How many affordable homes could be built? It seems our government talks about families/seniors/homeless/single parents but does nothing for them, except a small token gesture now and then.
If the province recorded a surplus of $350-million, why was the sale of the land so necessary? Didn’t the government accountants already know what their surplus would be? They are the ones in charge of our money and they appear to be unsure of the numbers. Would you want them as your accountants? This deal, and likely others, did not favour the taxpayer.
Then there are the senators who seem to feel that they are entitled to whatever they want. They spend our hard-earned money giving themselves luxuries most of us can not afford. The arrogance stinks.
Those is positions of power seem to forget who they are representing. They get this “nanny state” attitude and act as though we are mindless children who can’t possibly have an opinion. This has to change. Everyone cries about transparency and openness and we have yet to see either.
Our local government is the only place where we can honestly have a say. We know those people on council and we can look them in the eyes and offer suggestions and we should. It’s at least a little bit of taxpayer control.