Flin Flon city council “may” have to make difficult decisions about which municipal services stay and which ones go at some unknown point in the future.
And even though this “may” (but won’t necessarily) happen, council really wants to hear from residents about their municipal priorities. That way they’ll know what to do if those possible difficult decisions do have to be made.
That’s a paraphrase of the dialogue at Tuesday’s council meeting.
“It’s challenging times money-wise, and facilities-wise there’s a cost,” Mayor Cal Huntley said. “We have an aging pool, we have a Whitney Forum that’s heavily subsidized, we have a curling club we just met with that are looking for various methods to continue funding [because] they’re finding it challenging with the lack of participation. It’s the general environment right now and how it’s changing, and how we get input from the community [will inform] the decisions, and they may be tough decisions that we make.”
I commend council for being honest about the city’s state of affairs. I applaud them for proactively seeking feedback from a populace that ultimately bears the brunt of their decisions.
But for me, Huntley’s statement raises a few questions.
First, how substantial of an impact is population decline really having on the city’s bottom line?
The city derives most of its local revenue from property taxes on houses and commercial buildings. Sure there are fewer people in Flin Flon than there were 10 and 20 years ago, but are there drastically fewer buildings?
That doesn’t appear to be the case, and as long as a building is standing and owned by someone who wants to keep it (i.e. is paying the taxes), then the city isn’t out the dough.
Second, and I’ve raised this issue in the past, why, when the city talks spending reductions, is it so fixated on recreation facilities?
Of Flin Flon’s three main rec facilities – the Aqua Centre, Community Hall and Whitney Forum – the latter costs taxpayers the most at about $500,000 a year.
That’s just four per cent of the city’s budget. Four per cent to give the Bombers a home and our community a stellar venue for all manner of events. If the Whitney Forum were a person, he would rightly wonder, “Why is everybody always picking on me?”
Granted, the city does have to invest in these facilities to keep them safe and functional. The Aqua Centre in particular, we’ve been hearing for years, will require major work at some point (and kudos to the volunteers hoping to fundraise to do just that).
If there is ever a scenario in which a majority of council is willing to close one of these facilities rather than find the requisite cash elsewhere – and I have trouble picturing that – then naturally council should know where the public stands.
That’s a tricky proposition because the vast majority of residents neither attend council meetings nor write letters to council nor fill out surveys (though a 2005 survey on the now-defunct Communityplex proposal had a solid response).
That said, talk, letters and surveys are cheap. If council really wants to gauge the importance of our rec facilities – indeed of all services, such as public transit – then usage is what matters most.
I don’t care how many people fill out a survey saying they want to keep a particular service. If only 12 people use it, as an example, then we know there’s no substantial demand for it.
Still, the importance of a facility or service cannot always be vindicated through raw numbers.
Public transit, for instance, is used by a small percentage of our population. But those people really rely on the service, in some cases to get to work or to the clinic.
If you take away transit, suddenly some people can’t get to work. And if they can’t get to work, perhaps they no longer live in Flin Flon. The population further erodes.
It bears repeating that council is correct to seek greater input from the public on our true municipal priorities. The only way they’ll know how we feel is if we tell them.
Local Angle runs Fridays.
