Dear editor:
Be thankful for August.
The month of August will again be a reprieve for Rocky View residents. We have had nine consecutive months of council “highlights”, including drainage and road issues neglected so we can incur more debt for a new municipal palace, a variety of soon-to-flood-the-neighbours developments approved, a fourth successive year of Band-Aid solutions and passing the buck on Cochrane Lake, a developer’s delight draft of the Conrich ASP, approval of not-yet written engineering reports for a shopping centre, and other matters of similar correlation.
Now Rocky View residents get a break: council doesn’t meet in August. At least no further damage can be done this month.
On the subject of correlation, here is an interesting occurrence. Various council members have received election campaign contributions from developers, including from developers who don’t live in Rocky View, and have been benefactors to councillors in divisions other than the division in which their project is proposed.
Those same councillors consistently claim they are not in conflict-of-interest situations. By both law and precedent, we must take their word for it. However, it just so happens that 100 per cent of the time the councillor who received the funds has voted in favour of his benefactor’s project. I repeat, there is a 100 per cent correlation. I believe mathematicians call this “statistically relevant.”
So, Mr. Developer, you want Rocky View to approve some screwball project that no other municipality will consider?
There’s your tip. Statistics don’t lie.
Residents, breathe a sigh of relief. There are no council meetings in August. Councillors also need a break from those pesky (although often unanswered) residents’ concerns so in the upcoming month some will be travelling hither and yon — including one whose airfare expense to South America will be covered by Rocky View’s ever-generous taxpayers.
Enjoy the month of August. There could be a long, cold winter ahead.
Jerry Arshinoff,
Rocky View councillor, Division 2
