Not so silent E - They’re all 1.5 per cent screwed

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Published on Thursday, April 28, 2016

By Eoin Devereux

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

Full disclosure;  but when it comes to the Neepawa Town Council, this is my favourite time of the year and the reason why is quite simple. Because this is the only time of the year in which people, other than myself and Jackie from NACTV, actually bother to pay any attention to Neepawa Town Council. 

I can’t blame the average citizen for avoiding council meetings though. Truth be told, if I weren’t being paid to be there, I wouldn’t pay any attention to them either, because municipal politics is boring…98.5 per cent of the time. Fortunately though, we have just entered that 1.5 per cent sweet spot when things get interesting and all hell breaks loose.

If you are unaware of what I’m talking about, I’m referring to the reaction to the new municipal budget. It was unveiled at a public meeting on Tuesday, Apr. 19. For 2016, Neepawa Town  Council has allocated $7,655,027.81 towards the general operating fund and $5,047,751.51 to the utility operating fund.  From the $7,655,027.81 general fund, $116,895.95 has been allocated specifically for grants to organizations. That’s just 1.5 per cent of the general funding pie. But trust me, this minuscule 1.5 per cent slice is going to cause 100 per cent of the yelling and finger pointing at the next meeting.

Now the problem lies in how that 1.5 per cent is being distributed. Some groups, which have received grants in the past, will receive much less from the town this year and some others will receive nothing at all. For anyone who was paying attention, this redistribution of grant spending has been a long time coming. I predicted at around this time last year that the elimination of the previous ‘simply ask and you shall receive’ support structure was the ultimate end-game. That warning was not heeded.  Nobody noticed what the council was doing, until they didn’t do it and by then, it was too late. So now, there are a few local organizations wondering how the heck they can make up that budget difference.

On the other side of this equation, I’m sure our mayor and members of council have been receiving an earful from these few select groups over the past few days. Lost in all this is a mostly positive multi-million dollar budget, that gets some extremely long overdue projects moving ahead. It also doesn’t pass the majority of those added costs to the average taxpayers. In essence, all that good work is being completely overshadowed by just 1.5 per cent of the pie.

So now, we wait for the next meeting, in which people will complain, council will explain and nothing will change. Then you can go back to the status quo, of not paying attention to the level of government that impacts 98.5 per cent of your life.