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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/02/2024 (321 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
We have to express one major point of contention with the process followed by the administration and council this year, particularly when it comes to the city’s 10-year capital budget documents.
On Jan. 17, we sent a request via email to city manager Ron Bowles and several other city staff asking to get a copy of the full capital budget document that Mark Allard, the city’s general manager of development services, had been showing excerpts from during a previous council meeting.
As we stated in the email, we were hoping to take a look through the document to see how the administration had categorized projects into the essential, primary amenity and secondary amenity designations.
We were told by Allard that this document is not typically made public. Yet considering the nature of the information, and the city’s stated ambition of being open and transparent, we would ask for it.
Note that projects like the outdoor water park and the downtown library improvements would be included in such a document. Yet the public was never privy to any public discussion regarding decisions to axe either of these projects during regular council meetings. The only reason we’re aware of the fact that these projects are not going forward is that councillors like Desjarlais chose to mention them in open council.
To date, we have not received a copy of the report, even after the budget process has now been completed. The little bit of information on the city website only lists categories, and not specific projects, meaning the public is being left in the dark.
This week, we were told that the city would be able to provide more details on the 10-year capital plan “later this week or early next week,” while staff examine the document in light of several changes that took place during budget deliberations.
We would caution the city administration that the public has the right to know what the city intends to spend their tax dollars on, whether that be programs, vehicles or capital projects.
That information should not be left to an entitled few around the council table.