When basic needs become an issue for any person or family, where do they turn?
Certainly the first call would or should be to a local social service office. Funded by tax dollars and operated by municipal, provincial or federally paid staff this is where anyone should be able to get assistance with basic needs. What about when there are no tax dollars to help with basic needs such as housing, food, health and education? I am not talking about a third world country or a situation of natural disaster. I am talking about Cochrane.
How is it possible in a town such as ours that we can provide $50,000 for a tax-funded study to determine if a transit system to Calgary, that would compete with an existing private operator, is viable but we cannot provide basic emergency housing?
How is it possible in a town such as ours that we can fund the building and operating of a community kitchen business, a business that competes with private business but we cannot provide basic emergency housing?
How is it that tax dollars can fund the startup of socially responsible retail ventures but we have no income to provide basic needs?
Why is it that the same people who operate or work in businesses in Cochrane not funded by tax dollars and may actually be trying to compete with a tax-funded business are then stepping forward and paying the cost of basic needs for community members in need out of their pocket?
For the past three years I personally know of people who have helped out this way. How do those people know when and where the financial help is needed? Family and Community Social Services (FCSS), a department of the Town of Cochrane has a list of those willing to help with their own money, not tax dollars.
I hope that no one is ever stranded in Cochrane in a dangerous situation, without a place to live, hungry, cold, uneducated or unable to see a doctor because of money. However, what if no individuals or businesses step forward when called? What is wrong with a government that can provide the ‘nice to have’ projects but doesn’t take care of the ‘not so nice’?
This year, as last year, we will operate a volunteer charity gift-wrap store during the month of December with funds going to a ‘Santa Fund’ here in Cochrane. I have been talking with Jack Tennant about this for three years and it is time to start this fund. Until we can vote in a council that sees basic needs as necessary to cover with tax dollars before the ‘nice to haves’ are studied and started, private citizens will continue to step up. I hope to see the day when taxes are used for basic needs and funds are voluntarily raised for the ‘nice to have’!
