You know when your sibling gives you a present and prefaces it with a jaunty, “Don’t say I never gave you anything.” Well, my sister (probably) gave me COVID this week. I’m now a statistic and I have her to thank for it.
That’s why I had to watch this month’s Committee of the Whole unfold on my second screen instead of in-person in the council chambers this past Monday. On the bright side, distance sometimes gives you a different perspective, and the static view of the chamber being broadcast from the back wall gave me a very interesting perspective indeed.
There’s too much to say without having to type out a TikTok of who said what and when, but while some of the comments might have walked up to the line of decorum, I don’t think that they broke it. People are allowed to have their doubts about government, and indeed our system is built with the point of view that the onus is on those with state power to prove their good intent.
That’s why it was more than a little concerning that committee felt their job was to protect the corporation’s honour this week instead of assuaging the fears of citizens that too much power was being given away. Sadly, when it comes to capital projects in this city, skepticism about staff competency has been well-earned.
As I’ve said before in this space, most infrastructure projects undertaken in Guelph end up on time and on budget, but that doesn’t make the outliers any less legitimate. In context, the City of Guelph is able to execute infrastructure projects well, and if they weren’t, this would be a much bigger discussion.
With that caveat in mind, it’s not incorrect for people to worry about delegating authority over the capital budget to staff. One day, the police headquarters project was deemed 97 per cent complete and 96 per cent on budget even though it was a year past its completion date. Then, just a few months later, the contractor was fired and there was over $1 million of work left to do.
The last quarterly update on police headquarters was posted to the city’s website last September, and the “revised” schedule at that point was 98 per cent complete and 100.8 per cent on budget. I realize having a fabulous ribbon cutting for a project more that two years past due might be in bad taste, but the City would want to promote that this project is finally complete, if it were completed, right?
Yes, the police headquarters project is an outlier, but the public can hit city staff and council over the head with it, especially when committee kept using the word “trust.”
While the matter around the firing of Jasper Construction, the original contractor hired for the police headquarters project, is now before the courts, there has yet to be an examination through the lens of government accountability. There’s been no public accounting for how the police headquarters went so far off tracks without any advanced warning.
Given all that, saying “trust us” doesn’t pass much muster, and getting shirty because people have understandable doubts about the government’s intentions is not the right way to react. In a time of almost universal mistrust of authority, some of which is perfectly justified, having committee sit there and act like you’re wrong to have doubts is both dangerous and insulting.
Having said all that, committee’s decision to delegate authority to staff is probably the right one, and the argument that every capital project will become a political football is persuasive, and probably correct.
Consider Bob Bell, who went on a tirade before the vote demanding that committee cancel the South End Community Centre outright and start stripping the capital budget. Easy for the Ward 1 city councillor to say, but it was in line with the enlightened self-interest Bell displayed when he voted against changes to waste collection that affected his business along with 199 others.
Not having to care about running for re-election must be a wonderful thing.
It would also be a wonderful thing if our local institutions acted like they had a duty to be open and transparent with us, and not like they’re being dragged there begrudgingly while filled with bitter resentment that some citizens insist on exercising their democratic right to be skeptical.
Public skepticism, while annoying to those in the seat in power, is the first, most consistent line of protection between a people and a government with mal intent. That may not describe today’s city council, but it might describe one in the future, and when that day comes the doubters will be seen as prophetic and heroic.
American minister and columnist Frank Crane once said, “You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you do not trust enough.” I think we, as a people, feel deceived, and that has resulted in a lot of torment.
May I suggest that our city council should be thinking more about helping us find the balance again as opposed to smacking us on the wrists for our tone.
