By Stephen Vance, Editor
With all that is taking place in the world around us, it is quite easy to feel thankful as we head into this Thanksgiving holiday weekend. As we soak up the few remaining snow-less days while bracing ourselves for the shovelling and the subsequent sore backs that the coming winter will bring, it is a good time to reflect.
As much as I dislike the winter months, they seem much easier to live with than bombs falling from the sky as is happening in Iraq and Syria, struggles to contain a deadly virus in western Africa, or the civil unrest taking place in Ukraine thanks to a geography-hungry neighbour in Russia.
That said, while it is important to recognize the relative Utopia we live in, and there is value in putting our own quality of life in perspective, we can’t turn blind eyes to the problems that we do have, and issues that need to be addressed.
It is true that here in beautiful Meaford we don’t have any worries about drones flying overhead and dropping bombs on our infamous Big Apple, but that doesn’t mean that we should point to worst case scenarios around the world in order to argue that everything is fine here.
Fortunately for us, in addition to it being Thanksgiving, a time of bringing in the harvest, preparing for the cold months ahead, it is also election time – democracy, definitely something to be thankful for.
With the Thanksgiving spirit in mind, and with an eye on the upcoming municipal election, I would like to share some things that I am thankful for.
First, I am thankful that in spite of the terrible condition of Meaford’s roads, those crumbling strips of asphalt and gravel haven’t killed anyone as far as we know – yet. Some of the roads in our municipality, particularly the rural roads, could certainly cause a driver to lose control of their vehicle after hitting an unexpected pothole, or to drive into an oncoming lane while attempting to dodge a country road crater.
Note to council candidates – we’re thankful we have roads, and we’re thankful that despite their state of disrepair, there hasn’t been a fatal incident – job number one for the next council is to scream from the rooftops to the upper levels of government that municipalities need an enormous amount of help in order to ward off an infrastructure disaster.
The second thing I am thankful for is that, despite the high rate of unemployment in this area, and despite the shortage of affordable housing in Meaford, we don’t have an abundance of people living on the streets – yet. Many in this community are on the brink of homelessness, a paycheque or two away from eviction, a well-paying job away from regaining confidence in an increasingly cruel world.
Another note to council candidates – previous councils paid a lot of lip service to ‘economic development’, and task forces and reports were in abundance, but there has been very little actual progress made in bringing some sort of employment to Meaford. After making roads and other infrastructure a top priority, the next council must make some real progress in attracting real economic development to Meaford that would translate into real jobs, with real paycheques.
The third thing I am thankful for is that, despite their numbers and their value being constantly questioned, despite municipal staff having become Meaford’s favourite punching bag at times, Meaford’s municipal staff haven’t simply walked out en masse to find work elsewhere. How much fun would it be to go to work every day and work hard to support your family only to repeatedly read in the media or hear at public meetings that we have “too many employees” or that we need to “cut staff”. For some, a serious slashing of staff is the magic pill to solve all of our tax increase issues.
If we were to get rid of 16 of those evil municipal employees tomorrow, yes, Meaford might save about a million dollars per year in wages and benefits. But how much would Meaford lose in services and levels of service? How much would Meaford lose in property taxes when those employees leave town to find employment elsewhere? How much business would our shops and services lose with 16 families suddenly on the unemployment line?
Search for efficiencies? Sure, it must be done. Scale back or eliminate some services? Probably also should be done. But jobs are scarce enough in this neck of the woods, we don’t need to lose more of them.
There was an age when most people understood that when the economy was booming, the private sector employed the masses, and when times got tough, government picked up the slack and employed more people, or injected funding into projects that result in employment.
I’m thankful that era existed – I just wish it would return.
