EdmontonCityCouncil

On Wednesday Edmonton Police Service has asked Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Service Mike Ellis to intervene in and investigate city council's latest appointments of Dan Jones and Renée Vaugeois to the Police Commission. On Thursday Ellis said he will lunch an inquiry into the growing acrimony amongst the Edmonton police, the commission that oversees it and city council. Late Thursday afternoon Dan Jones one of the new police commissioner appointees said he is stepping down from the post.

Reading the accounts of the past couple of days reminds me of kids squabbling on the playground, but this is more serious. On Thursday Minister Ellis said ongoing dysfunction between the three bodies “is negatively impacting public safety, public trust and the ability to deliver adequate and effective policing, putting public safety in Edmonton at risk.”

Its the time of year when Edmonton's city council focuses on the budget for 2025. Various budget proposals have been submitted including amendments led by Mayor Sohi. City staff had proposed a property tax increase of 8.1% but on Wednesday city council passed changes to lower next year’s property tax increase 6.1%.

I'm watching with interest what the newly created USA Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed up by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy is proposing in ways to reduce waste in the USA federal government. The reason I'm interested is because it doesn't matter whether it's any level of government, private industry, non profit groups the more layers there are in the organization the more inefficiency, bloat and waste there is. Tat is whu someone from outside the organizaytion with the gifts, abiliyites and experience like Musk and Ramaswamy are so valuable. Maybe they'd consider coming to Edmonton after they're through in Washington.

I've often said "it's easy to spend someone else's money" and there is no better proof of that than government spending. Governments at all levels depend on taxpayers to fund their schemes and dreams and if and when there is a shortfall, they know they can always raise the tax rate and City Council may be considering this month..

City Council Council will need to decide whether raise the propert tax rate to 8.1% as recommended, cut services or add new programs that will increase the rate. Budget discussions are set to start Nov. 13 at city hall.

Many times over the years I've been reminded of a common sense colloquialism I first heard decades ago. The saying was "no matter how thin you slice it, baloney still has 2 sides" meaning there is more than one way to consider something. Whether one agrees with Lorne Gunter's columns or not, he often brings a contrarian perspective (another side) that is worthy of consideration, such as he expressed in his latest column below.

Residents, community groups and business owners have shared concerns with city council about knives being sold at local stores. It is obvious from looking at these knives that they are dangerous and there were 532 knife-related events in the downtown core alone last year including a number of homicides.

In April, City administration was asked to look at how to best address the problem of knives being sold in convenience stores. The City is limited in what it can do to prohibit the sale of knives since it is the federal government that rules over criminal matters involving knives and prohibited weapons.

Lorne Gunter confirms what I've said many times that it's easy to spend someone else's money. To fund its agenda Edmonton Council has become very good at it. Yes, they deflect by saying their reckless spending will be covered by raising local taxes, the province or Ottawa but taxpayers know the money inevitably comes out of their and their families' pockets. Its time for some serious accountability NOW by the individual councillors, moratorium on spending and raising taxes, cost budget cutting where possible. Another aspect of accountability to the taxpayers is the polling booth. And the polling booth serves to remind us of the saying "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" and the song lyrics "I won't get fooled again".