I think one of the most frustrating things is sitting back and seeing what people are doing to try and get elected. We have council hopefuls that write letters to the paper every two weeks to state their opinion yet, in my seven years have never seen any of those individuals actually attend a council meeting.
Perhaps the most negative element to this election is to have a current councillor who does as much social media as he can yet misleads the public through inaccurate information, half-truths and grandstanding. Being entrenched in a belief system that wholeheartedly embraces the idea that the route to public decision making is best done hiding behind a computer rather than engaging the public face to face is without question the actions of an individual out of touch with the community. So I thought I would write a short letter to give you some information, focused squarely on some of the wrong information being put out there.
Several candidates have claimed they will use the next four years to solve Cochrane’s traffic problems. They are either lying to get your vote or don’t have a clue of how things work. The issues Cochrane faces in regards to traffic are certainly not for lack of hard work and relentless pursuit of a resolution between the town and the provincial government. We don’t own the land around Cochrane, Rocky View does. This is a county who did not even step up to pay their fair share of Spray Lake Recreation so I don’t see them handing over land to help us ease our traffic woes. Not to mention if we could purchase land it would come to millions of dollars just for the purchase, then millions more to build a road. Please note $240,000 is a one per cent tax increase. You do the math.
Here again some candidates have no idea what they are talking about, and any current councillor who says they will slow down development is putting the town at serious risk of a lawsuit and in violation of provincial regulations. There is a set of rules that developers must follow both provincial and our own. If they follow these guidelines we must allow them to develop the lands they have purchased for this purpose. Those of you that have followed me over the last seven years know of my opposition to how development has occurred in our town. That is why Coun. Gaynor Levisky and I introduced the Community Enhancement motion that put many new improvements into our communities. Far less than I wanted but my hands were tied by regulations.
There has been so much wrong information and outright lies being put out there about our mayor I feel I should state my thoughts after working with him for seven years.
First is the new bridge. Mayor Ivan Brooker was a huge factor in getting the land we need for the bridge so everyone south of the river could have quicker access to downtown. There were three different landowners that needed to be convinced that they should hand their land over to us for our bridge. This was no easy feat.
Our mayor spent countless hours talking to our provincial government to get the intersection at 1A and 22 back on to the books. His perseverance got the intersection from obscurity to reality. This will certainly help the residents of Sunset, Heritage and Heartland.
He supported my motion to make sure that off-leash areas are put in every quadrant of the town and that every new development must either have an off-leash park or be close to one.
He recognized the need for our recreation centre upgrade, realizing that we were growing quickly and we had swim clubs, curlers, seniors and families that needed a facility that would take us well into the future.
He was the leader in keeping tax increases over the last four years some of the lowest in the country, this during a recession, yet not dipping into our reserves to do so.
Mayor Brooker and I have had many disagreements over the years but I can honestly say that I have never seen a harder worker or someone who cares more about his community than he does.
I would ask you do one thing. Do not listen to social media, don’t listen to me. Find out what you need to know about each candidate running and get out and vote for who best represents what you feel Cochrane needs to look like in the future. Thank you Cochrane for the last seven years, it has been a privilege and a wonderful experience representing such a great community.
Jeff Toews
