Well Time March's On

Hi all,

It's been over a month since the elections were held and it was a hard ball to swallow. The people of Whitby (ok only 47 percent) favored higher taxes, a possible Performing Arts Centre that will cost us tax payers close to one million dollars a year in losses and a decision which our current Mayor wants to get out of or it would have been a done deal already, which of course is the Cullen Park Sale.

We have three new faces on council; Tracy Hanson, Ken Montague and Michael Emm. I hope for the sake of us tax payers these three will vote down the proposed Money pit and spend our tax dollars wisely. We will be keeping a very close eye over these next four years.

Which brings me to my next point if we do the math correctly Pat Perkin’s only received 47 percent of the vote, which means 53 percent of Whitby disagreed with her position on most of her platform, which according to all the reporting in the Whitby Flyer Wrap was election signs being damaged. It is too bad the paper that people read locally isn’t really a local paper or maybe just maybe the real issues would have been on the front page. I’m just saying…

I look at things in a different view and usually from looking at the political games that get played from inside of the council. You hear rumors and that’s all it is unless you talk to the person the rumors are about and then you find out the real scoop. Politics’ is a very cruel game and many people have learnt this. This had to be one of the dirtiest elections I could think of and a lot of the horse bleep came from one camp and it wasn’t the camp I was working in. So if you ever happen to get close to these politicians, which is a good idea in my books, as the saying goes you keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer, but you will only hear things from these same politicians that they want you to hear.

So where am I going with all this, well follow along. You see at the federal level of the government you have an opposition party to question the direction of the controlling party. At the provincial level of government the same rule applies. Which brings us to the Municipal Level of Government where you get to see most of your hard earned tax dollars go to waste, why? Because we can only vote out a municipal government every four years. It doesn’t matter if they have done well or have failed us miserably you can’t vote them out until their four year term is up. Now for where I am going, what if these municipal politicians have to answer to the people, yes you and me the tax payers. We pay our taxes day after day, ok our Mayor doesn’t because she only rents, but most of us do. So what we need is an opposition party or voice that will question our councilors regularly on where our tax dollars are being spent. Issues such as the Performing Arts Centre, Cullen Park and even Whitby Hydro where there have been rumors of selling it off can remain in the forefront and we the people can have a say and let council know where we stand on these issues. Remember there are 53 percent of the Whitby Voters that did not vote for our current Mayor, as a matter of fact only one councilor got the support of more than 50 percent of the voters and that was Liz Roy. So that means we would have a very strong voice to speak with. So we officially become the voice party that should and will keep these councilors honest.

How do we do this well that’s a question everyone has to ask themselves, but what I am proposing is a Whitby Rate Payers Association that will be recognized by the Town. After all we have a right to know where the Money raised from the Mayors Gala (Right now it’s for the Performing Arts Centre that will cost us millions if build) is going to, as this is run by a committee of council and you have a right to see the detailed budgets. We also have a right to know how the money that is raised from the Mayors Golf Tourney is used. You have a right to know if there is a committee setup to decide what charities or organizations benefit from this or is this decision made only by the Mayor. I know it used to be a committee of three, but that was before Mayor Pat Perkins beat Marcel Brunelle in 2006 and things were changed. Did you know you could apply for these funds? These are just some of things that need to be looked at and questioned.

These were just some of things that have been on my mind and figured there are enough of us Tax payers out there that just don’t want to take it any longer and we must be heard, not every four years, but every council, operations and planning meeting. We have to band together and be noticed, the larger the group the more notice you get.

If you’re interested in becoming part of the Rate Payers Association or want to get more information please e-mail me at whitbyratepayers@rogers.com and I would be happy to take the time to hear your concerns and find out how we can all work together to make our taxes work for us!

So now that you heard from me, Good or bad I would love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading

Scott templeton