Submission made to Committee of the Whole on October 27, 2005
By Councillor Margaret McCarthy


I believe it is important to strive. I believe it is important to reach. I believe it is important to over reach. But that has to be based on a sense  of reality and our reality is that we are going into a budget process of 50-60 million dollars that we are going to have to face down yet again. The  reality that we are faced with on a daily basis, and our constituents are  faced with on a daily basis, is gas rate increases, hydro rate increases, water rate increases, snow removal, etc. Basic services, a basic level of quality of life issues that have spiraled for the constituents in our  communities, quite honestly to the point where it is unaffordable. Huge  financial undertakings of this magnitude on a one-shot deal when a lot of  our basic services, basic infrastructures are in disrepair, is not a  justifiable position for me to take and I do so making this decision  responsibly and with regret because I would like to join the party, I genuinely would. I don’t believe that the economic spin offs that this has been suggested we will glean from this event will actually come to fruition.  I’ve done my own research on it and I can tell you when you have an influx  of this magnitude over a short span of time, a community and the businesses that service that influx go into crisis mode. They depend on regularly imposed, consistently increased business with a predictable clientele. It’s not a one-shot deal that makes or breaks a business. It’s the longevity, it’s the daily decision making that brings people to a community. I’m going  to go out on a limb here and say that this is not going to make or break the  City. I don’t believe it’s going to be the thing that it’s trumped up to be. I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s the daily decision making, it’s  the management that goes into the community and the quality-of-life issues and the attention to detail that actually benefits a community in the long run.

These are my submissions and I make them with a great deal of regret because I genuinely would like to join the party but I feel that the trip won’t be  worth it in the end.