Stepping out of the shadow of councils past
The current city council has been, up until now, “overshadowed” by decisions of the previous council and other councils past. Changes in government more often than not are caused by dissatisfaction among voters with the decisions made by the previous one(s), and hopes for something better. Can anyone deny that the downtown sports and entertainment centre and the renaming of Market Square were on voters’ minds in the last municipal election, overshadowing all other issues? In fact, two of the three mayoralty candidates – who garnered a combined 59 per cent of the vote – were in favour of revisiting, cancelling or moving the entertainment centre.
That this council reflects the will of the majority should be a cause for happiness, not concern. A majority of Kingstonians disagreed with the location of the arena and want to improve the process, allowing for more public input, budget transparency and honest and timely communication. Motions have been adopted by this council to improve all of the above. The motion to cancel the arena was about to be
withdrawn by its mover due to a groundswell of public opinion, and the contractual ramifications of cancelling it, before the motion was ruled out of order. If the motion had come to a vote, it would have been defeated.
An amendment that the public would at least have input into the naming of the arena was adopted by this council. Going forward, I would like to see public input extended to other items. It is astonishing that the public can vote on such frivolities as choosing a Canadian Idol, yet citizens can’t vote on such important issues as where we would like to see our arena built or whether we want to sell naming rights to one of our heritage sites, and if we do, whether we should use an open and fair tendering process.
While most councillors support a third crossing of the Cataraqui River, what is wrong with waiting for seven months before taking on yet another project? We have already waited for decades for the third crossing. Our city has demonstrated that it is having some issues with projects already undertaken, and it would be prudent to get some of the ones already started done before taking on anything new. We must also consider the Official Plan currently under development and put our need for another bridge into the context of the new environmental reality.
Even while being overshadowed by past decisions and attempting to fix some of the problems that have been identified, this council has put together a fair and progressive budget that, to a large extent, addresses many items the community felt were lacking during the previous council while at the same time coming in with a tax hike of only five per cent. When you take into account the fact that there is no education tax increase (a mechanism put in place by the province to help municipalities deal with downloading), the combined total increase is only four per cent. This is less than any increase put forward over the term of the previous council.
Over the next four years, the members of this council will be working together on ways to reduce future tax increases to the point where, through proper planning and budgeting, we can start to reduce taxes. I look forward to continuing to work on council together with some good, bright and civic- minded people to accomplish even greater things for our community. What we need as a city and council is less finger-pointing, lecturing, threats and disrespectful behaviour, and more inspired leadership and co-operation.
Kingstonians should be very excited about our collective prospects . We finally have a majority on council and among our citizens who are more concerned about the global community than focus groups; more concerned about transparency, public input, proper planning and budgeting and open communication than about progress at any cost to compensate for past inadequacies. This council is also “greener” by far in its outlook on our shared environment and has a desire to plan and implement policy change to reduce our global footprint and enhance our local quality of life.
Over the next four years and beyond, Kingston will continue to step out of the shadow cast by its past and into a bright future. We will collectively build upon our great history while learning from our past mistakes. It is time to move forward together in co-operation, with an inclusive vision. Together we can make a difference.
Rob Matheson
City councillor
Loyalist-Cataraqui
Kingston