It's All Smoke and Mirrors

I wonder if Councillor Brister, the Chair, and Councillor Postma actually attended the same Operating Budget Committee meetings. You'd never think so after the Diva of Ward 2 slammed their Committee process right after the Chair made his remarks at Council last night. It was clear that she had had enough of the gamesmanship and the misinformation being spread about the "spenders" on Council and was not going to take it quietly any more.

So much for the pretence of Council unity. What a segue....Councillor Budget speaking first and then being ripped to shreds by his Committee colleague. Finally some spark. I can hardly wait for the new year.

It is also clear that Caroline understood what the role of a Councillor is in the budget process. And as she said, what happened to the one year wonder: "Whatever happened to People Based budgeting?"

I liked what Caroline had to say and so contacted her right after the Council meeting so that I could post her speech to let you, dear reader, read it for yourself. Wear fire retardant clothing. It is HOT!

• "The Operating Budget Committee has been deliberating since November. Unlike our counterparts on the Capital Budget Committee we did not prioritize anything – we did not prioritize which departments/services should be cut based on 2004’s People Based budget priorities. The Operating Budget Committee was lacking strategic direction and vision.
  
  Impacts to the 6 strategic priorities set by this council in 2004 were not considered. Impacts to service set by People Based Budgeting were not been considered. Impacts to staffing and moral were not considered. We simply slashed and burned, based on nothing more than numbers without regard to policy or direction. Out of a $250 million dollar budget we slashed $20,000 here $1,000 there but never once did we allow for the public to truly participate.
  
  What ever happened to People Based budgeting? How are citizens going to learn what the cuts really mean? We did not even advertise our meetings.
  
  We made some cuts that we did not all agree on. For Example Huron Lodge. We used figures from the months of December to July to predict a whole year. How are we supposed to gauge what the fall & winter season will bring to our seniors in July considering that we are dealing with new strands of viruses year after year? How do we know how many residents will get sick, with what illness and for how long, especially when no members of the Operating Budget Committee have a background in Health? You don’t, you take an educated and reasonable guess from the people who have the experience in operating an institution such as this.
  
  It’s all smoke and mirrors in the end - we actually deferred spending about $5.7 Million and called it savings - in fact the Operating budget committee referred $4 Million to the Capital Budget Committee – which means capital projects likely got delayed – not savings – delays to service.
  
  I am greatly disappointed that some of my esteemed colleagues have labelled this Council as being at war with spenders vs. savers, good vs. evil, guardians of good vs. guardians of the public purse etc. There are many ways to stretch the truth to make yourself sound better than others, however all actions or mis-actions have an impact, some that you may not notice today but you certainly will in the future. Smoke and mirrors - I truly look forward to educating the public on the budget in an open truly people based process."

Ken Junior was remarkably quiet on this issue...does Caroline's speech mean there is a new Captain for the team?