Fire Hall tower a whim

Friday March 12, 2010

By Yukon News

Let’s take a modest step towards political responsibility. The general public, who don’t have the opportunity to see the tawdry underbelly of government, would be surprised how many proposals are the ideas Ð dare I say whims Ð of an individual politician. I’d like to know who those politicians are.

The current expenditure of $110,000 for a fake bell tower on the Old Fire Hall is probably one such. While not a large expenditure as projects go, neither is it trivial.

The money is to be spent on a historically inaccurate, unusable tower that won’t even hold a bell. While promoted as a “focal point” for the waterfront, that’s an odd statement for a location that isn’t part of a public gathering area. Furthermore, there doesn’t seem to be much of a workable waterfront plan for the tower to act as a focus for. Somebody wants a bit of Disneyland on First Avenue.

When you see something that looks like a whim, the chances are it is. That’s fine if it’s you or me spending our own $110,000. When it’s my money and your money being spent by a politician, I want to know who that person is.

Politicians have a habit of shoving a bureaucrat out in front to take the flack. Let’s place responsibility on the initiating party, by having legislation that requires the sponsoring politician to attach their name to the whim. Some ideas may be good and others bad, but at least we would know who is responsible. And we could keep score.

I bet we’d cut down on a lot of frivolous spending this way.

Charlie McLaren

Whitehorse