I have read every budget in Cochrane line by line for over two decades now. Unfortunately, I am often left with a lot of questions and frustration with the lack of transparency. Too often, budget information seems to be an exercise in wordsmithing to promote certain talking points versus delivering the information in a clear, concise, and user-friendly manner.
It was interesting to me that in the most recent budget, there were comments made by council members McFadden and Fedeyko that stated they needed additional information and/or that the information presented was not always clear.
So, when I heard about the formation of a budget task force I thought, ‘finally!’ Then I read that council and administration do not plan to have any members of the public on this task force.
In recent months I’ve heard town administration and council talk about the need for public engagement. Council then acknowledges that their current efforts at communicating with the public are inadequate or ineffectual. Council then brings up an important concern about missing and/or unclear information in the budget. Then council and administration have an opportunity to help fix the problems of transparency, accountability, and public engagement by having members of the public to be on the budget task force but chose not too, why?!
Is council unaware of the importance of community involvement? Is council trying to ignore this opportunity? Is council afraid of what the public might suggest if they were on this committee? Is council afraid of what would happen if full budget details are revealed? Is this another example of the ‘herd mentality’ that has gripped our council? Or is there something else?
Community involvement is never a waste of time and if council/administration do not feel their efforts are working then try something different. The solution is NOT to abandon their responsibility! I’m a strong believer of community engagement/grass roots democracy. I simply do not understand this council’s apparent unwillingness to work towards greater transparency, accountability, and public engagement.
Dan Cunin
Gleneagles
