Barb Higgins, often criticized in this election for being unqualified with merely a face for politics, released her policy document today. I must admit, I was rather excited to see what would transpire from the brain trust of the Barb Higgins campaign (insert sigh of discontent here).
After adding a number of pictures and reducing the margins of her document, there is not much more that is different from the original point form versions of her seven priorities.
Ms. Higgins does an excellent job of using the buzzwords that have become synonymous with this election, as well as a fine mastery of white space, but alas, her policy booklet still leaves leaves much to the imagination. To be a little critical, the policy document lacks the proactive and forward thinking that one would expect from such a dynamic personality.
Reducing business taxes, to the degree of saying that there was thought of eliminating them all together and affecting the pay of senior managers at city hall was troubling to me.
Some jobs in this world require the skill and education that is quite often rare. Those individuals who seek a career in which they can utilize those skills and talents, such as civil service, should be compensate accordingly. When I hear people complain that the mayor or aldermen of Calgary are overpaid, I compare that job to any other in the private sector, where the CEO of a company earns up to 10 times the salary of Calgary's head civil servant with the same annual operating budget.
Wages and salaries are an easy target in an election. Nowhere in Ms. Higgins' document does she mention ridding the taxpayers of costly line items that can be managed by the private sector or that should not have been a city line item in the first place.
There is so much potential in the new city council to make a change. There is even more potential for a political newcomer, with a fresh approach, to revolutionize city council with new ideas. This was not the case.
I did appreciate the statement regarding snow removal. It made me think after reading her policy document that there actually is someone in her camp with fresh ideas, but he/she must have only been working part time that week.
Quoted from Barb Higgins policy document.
http://barbhiggins.ca/assets/files/Barb-Higgins-Policy-Book.pdf
"On the matter of residential snow removal, Calgary simply does not receive enough snow over the course of the winter for a permanent residential snow removal program. We should have emergency, private sector, contracted, residential snow removal when there are ‘extraordinary snow events;"
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