Clear as mud...
Our city has a problem with transparency and accountability.
If you read the platforms of any other candidate for mayor or city council,
you'll see that they agree, essentially without exception. What you won't find
is any ideas on how to fix the problem. Don't get me wrong, they all say
they'll fix it, but there don't seem to be any ideas out there. My guess is
that they would have us believe that the problem is as basic as “The old guard
were corrupt, but I'm virtuous. My virtue will cleanse City Hall.” If you
believe that, I have a defunct business in Arizona that I can sell you for a
dollar.
What has emerged in the wake of the wave of scandals
emanating from City Hall the past number of years is a disturbing pattern.
Certain individuals and businesses seem to get preferential treatment based
on... well, what is that preferential treatment based on? CBC News investigated
and compiled a report (which they had to do by hand, because there was no
comprehensive list available to the public) of the top contributors to election
campaigns in the 2010 civic elections. If you review the list, you'll see that
the owners and senior management of Shindico combined to be the top donors
during the election cycle, spending nearly $19 000 combined to support
candidates.
Shindico has been in the news a bit lately, as they appear
to have gotten preferential treatment as the broker in the city's deal to buy
the former Canada Post building and turn it into the new Police Headquarters.
They were also involved in the rather infamous fire hall land swap deals, where
the Fire Chief negotiated (entirely outside his responsibility and realm of
expertise) real estate transactions directly with the company. I'm sure that
this preferential treatment was completely unrelated to their political
contributions. If you believe that, I've still got that dormant Arizona
business for a buck.
Bartley Kives, of the Winnipeg Free Press, did his own
investigation of the campaign contributions from the 2010 civic election. He
found that not only did nearly every campaign spend right up to the allowed
limit, but that donations seemed to come from one of two sources; either from
businesses and business interests, or from unions and other labour interests.
Of course, the career politicians would have us believe that this campaign
funding does nothing to influence their policy choices. Let me check my
pockets... there might be another shell corporation in Arizona I can sell you
on the cheap.
Just to be clear, I'm not naive enough to think that money
can ever be removed from politics. As a candidate running a truly grassroots
campaign, I'm reminded daily of just how much more effectively I could campaign
if I could just have an endless supply of lawn signs, or be able to tap into a
pool of “volunteer” labour to knock on doors and let the voters get to know my
name and hear my message. The spending cap for the St. Boniface ward in this
election is around $40 000. I'll be doing well if I get halfway there. Since
I'm depending on individual donations, I still think that's pretty impressive
and really speaks to the strength and awareness of grassroots campaigning.
So we've established that there's a problem. How can we fix
it? Well, there's a saying that sunlight is the best disinfectant, and I'm
inclined to agree. We need to address the accountability gap at City Hall.
However, you can't have accountability without an account, so before that,
there needs to be transparency. For their investigation that I mentioned
earlier, the CBC tried to access a donor list with a Freedom of Information
request. The City supplied them with a list, but with the donor names blacked
out. It turns out that there is a master list that is accessible, but there can
be no copies made, and the only way any record of it can leave City Hall is if
someone is willing to manually compile a list of their own. Fortunately, the
CBC team were diligent enough to do that. Why would the politicians not want
that donor list to be publicly accessible? Are they afraid that people will
find out what's going on?
As it turns out, they don't really need to worry. Would you
like to see how your councillor voted on a motion last year? Unless you were at
that particular Council session, you would have no way of finding that
information unless a member of the media or another citizen happened to keep a
record. There's no other legislative body that doesn't keep a publicly
accessible record of votes, so why do we allow our City Council to do it?
Here are my proposals to fix this problem. First, I would
reduce the limit on individual campaign donations from $1500 for the mayoral
race and $750 for council races to a hard cap of $200 for the mayoral race, and
$200 to one council candidate of your choosing. I want campaign spending to be
a reflection of residents' support for a candidate, not a way for special
interests to exert undue influence. Second, all donations would be made public,
and would be accessible at City Hall and online (with provisions for protecting
donors from potential identity theft). The people of this city have a right to
know where a candidate's support comes from. Third, I would ensure that a
Hansard-style record of all debates, motions, and votes in the Council chamber
exists, and is made available in hard copy and online (in a searchable format)
via the city's website. That this somehow doesn't already exist is frankly
baffling to me. Fourth, on a personal level, if elected, I will host a monthly
open house, giving the people of my ward the opportunity to meet with me in
person to discuss their concerns and to hold me accountable. These will take
place on a rotating schedule at various community centres and schools
throughout the ward to ensure equal opportunity for attendance. On top of that,
I will continue to make my personal contact information available to
constituents, just like I have during this campaign. I want to hear from the
people of St. Boniface, and you deserve to continue to have access to your
representatives all the time, not just when they want your vote.
The current culture at City Hall is one of corruption and
shady backroom deals, cutting the public out of key decisions, and ultimately
contributing not just to our financial deficit, but to our democratic deficit
as well. I want our civic government to be guardians of the public trust, and
to conversely earn back the trust of the residents of this city. It will take
time, but the first step is to start with the (admittedly modest) reforms I've
proposed. The question we all need to ask ourselves is whether or not the old
guard of career politicians is capable of extricating themselves from a corrupt
system. If you truly think they are, well... Let me tell you about this great
business opportunity in Arizona that I can get you into for a very reasonable
price.
I encourage you to leave a comment
or reach out to me at ryandaviesforstb@gmail.com . If
you like what you are reading and wish to support my campaign in any way,
donation, yard sign, hand out fliers or other forms, please let me know.
This grassroots campaign is gaining momentum thanks to people who want to
see changes to City Hall and the way we communicate with our residents.
Here are the news pieces I've referred to in this piece, as
well as a few other relevant stories laying out some background.
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