I cannot for the life of me understand how our local municipal governments, Town and County, can actually sit behind closed door meetings, then come out and clap each other on their shoulders because they have a formula on how to finance this new pool that they would like to build. Would it be nice to have a new pool? - yes, but who pays for it? Is it economically feasible for the taxpayers to fund this - we do not know as we haven’t been told what the price tag is, and how it will affect our current tax rate.
The pool brings in what - $128,000 in revenue yearly - do people realize this would take 160 years just to get back your capital cost? What about cost overruns, maintenance, staff, repairs, user fees, debt servicing costs??? The Town and the County Councils owe it every citizen in our districts a vote on this and the costs, before sod is turned. The Provincial and Federal governments are right behind the local governments, after our money, where does it end?
Howard Wilkie
Athabasca, AB
