Living in the most beautiful city isn't cheap

Regular walks by regular people around Stratford's new walking track were profiled in a full-page article touting the rec centre. An improvement somewhat from the William Allman Arena but being remote, more people drive now to take a walk. When there is a paying venue they have to take a hike, after all they don't pay to walk. The rec centre is in some ways about exercise, some ways about commerce and many ways about photo ops. It shows Stratford has some pretty cool bling. But I digress.

This letter is about Stratford's debt and desperate need to reach the Critical Mass of Rich Folk. This is the basket where our Mayor, Debt Matheson, and council are placing my eggs, your eggs, your children's eggs and their children's eggs. The C.M.R.F. is important because they just have so much more. Taxes and housing are a small enough part of their income that they can stock their larders rather than just look longingly at the fresh fruit in the market. I give credit to those generous in their donations to the public good; I believe it an honour for them to do so.

Stratford's Protection to Prosperous Persons Committee makes being rich extra special. Let's say you live on a busy street, it backs onto the country club, it's three lanes wide, there are no cross streets and the homes are set well back on fairly wide lots. But you're concerned about the traffic. The P.P.P.C. will immediately restrict access to both ends of your street and reduce the speed to a school zone. Let's say you live on a different busy street, backs onto factories, two lanes wide, many cross streets, homes on narrow lots close to the street. But you're concerned about the traffic. The P.P.P.C. says, "Who do you think you are?"

Stratford has a planning office – or at least a name on a door – and they pay a planner suffering rejection. Nancy Campbell Collegiate wanted to remain in Stratford, continuing to attract students worldwide and paying taxes. The P.P.P.C. said planning department is wrong, Nancy Campbell Collegiate can't expand into the old school board offices.

Now the taxpayers have to pony up a blank cheque for land plus another 10 million debt dollars for a university campus. How does this happen? The clerk's office directed me to the minutes of a special council meeting Dec. 27, 2007, available online. The special meeting was to consider resolutions dealing with Festival Hydro Inc. and Festival Hydro Services Inc., a year-end bookkeeping entry. New business (the university gift) was slipped in, got three readings and was passed and not even mentioned as an agenda item. That's how Stratford debt grows open-ended.

The puffery and pontification about this being Stratford's #1 capital/debt project leaves things like storm management where?

Remember storm management? Impending lawsuits? The $16 million storm pond now has a $16 million subsidy attached. The subsidy going to golfers and some locals who wanted the ponds moved to recently and controversially acquired lands outside of town, rather than on lands more easily converted and owned by the city.

This is not at all surprising; whatever is being done the question always seems to be, "Is there a more expensive way of doing this?" Be it capping the North Shore with expensive stone or buying lampposts that have to be repainted each year or tearing down ice rinks because the roof has a leak, the concept of limited resources is unknown. Look at our road salt cathedral compared to any other centre's cost-conscious shelters of canvas over steel.

Living in the most beautiful city in the world sure isn't cheap and the ever-burgeoning debt needs a Critical Mass of Rich Folk who can put up and shut up. The city has rallying cries like "Community Excellence With Worldwide Impact" and "Dramatically Different". Perhaps "Good People Led by Megalomaniacs" and "More Pretty Than Practical" tell a more accurate story.

Martin Hills
Stratford