‘Trust is gone’

Dear Editor:

For a very long time , municipal governments were viewed as the most trustworthy of politicians. The reason was obvious. You’re going to see these people at church , at the fair, at the super market and so on, and you won’t have an RCMP security detail to keep people away from you either.

The politicians and the bureaucrats were genuinely your neighbours and were inclined to give you the time of day. And, god forbid, help you to navigate the system.

Now we are in the era of the highly credentialed expert, the ones who fill the executive planning, legal and clerk positions and wield a great deal of power in the current system. The CAO and the clerk even sit at the council table, though none of us voted for them (all the other staff are not at the table but to the side). 

It seems it’s no longer possible to hire locally as a great many of these people come from other municipalities and seem to move around quite a bit, like hockey players with free agency. Mercenaries with no particular skin in the game and they aren’t concerned about seeing you publicly.

Now the game is don’t answer emails, only do phone calls if absolutely necessary as those have plausible deniability. Never respond in writing and don’t offer any advice This is what we get for these exploding salaries.

If you have a question for staff or council, good luck, especially if it’s on an issue like the fill that has been generating a great deal of controversy And where is our fearless mayor to provide leadership and answers to a lot of questions on this matter? Nowhere. 

You’d think he’s gone into a witness protection program. He tried unsuccessfully to shut down the discussion after a delegation at council and now not a word. And the mercenaries will support that approach. Say nothing. Do not write anything. Go legal if you must.

It’s not been my experience of this small town of 12,000 for the last 28 years that I’ve lived here. The trust is gone.

Tom Carroll,
Erin