Just got back from tonight's interVivos young candidates forum at Ching's Asian Kitchen & Dim Bar in downtown Edmonton. The crowd of around 40 (who weren't watching the Obama-McCain debate) gathered to listen to and question candidates Stephanie Laskoski, Aden Murphy, Della Drury, and Brent Rathgeber (Rathgeber admittedly isn't really a young candidate, but I get the feeling that most of his Edmonton Conservative counterparts are off campaigning in Ontario).
Though most of the evening's questions revolved around the deepening economic crisis spreading north from the United States and east from Ontario, an array of other topics were also covered. Ward 5 City Councillor Don Iveson was in attendance and posed an articulate question to the candidates about federal funding of municipalities. Iveson raised the important point that while Edmonton is currently facing the possibility of a double-digit tax increase and even though municipalities are responsible for providing essential public services and infrastructure, cities like Edmonton only collect 5 cents for every tax dollar paid by Edmontonians (with the rest going to the provincial and federal governments).
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
young candidates on the attack in edmonton.
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3 comments:
Don Iveson raises a good point and it is one that the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has been lobbying the feds to do for a long time.
Tax increases suck but cities are forced to deal with a lot of the crap that the provinces and the feds don't want to touch or feel is beneath them. The least the provinces can do is give cities the kind of financial powers they need to build safer and stronger communities.
Name me a major city that isn't dealing with the same financial crunch and population growth challenges that Edmonton is.
What were your impressions of the various candidates there? How did each one do?
What was Rathgeber's response to Iveson's municipal funding question? The Cons are the least sympathetic to these requests for fairness, were forced into some funding by existing programs/plans of the Martin govt. I hope Toronto voters remember Finance Minister Flaherty's infamous comment to cities: 'fund your own potholes'.
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