Playing finders keepers

The $52 million should not go to flood restoration

If Mayor Naheed Nenshi thinks the city needs more money to help cover its flood restoration bills, he can raise taxes to generate that money, but he should not use any of the $52-million so-called tax surplus. That money belongs strictly to the taxpayers, who indicated via consultations held before the floods hit in June, that they wanted the money given back to the citizens. Nor, since the disaster, have they indicated they’ve changed their minds and want it spent on flood reconstruction.

Not only is Nenshi disregarding the fact that the money is not the city’s to do with as it pleases, but he is jumping the gun on his anticipated need for it. He apparently believes either that the provincial and federal governments won’t be ponying up the flood recovery costs they promised in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, or he is already thinking the government money won’t be enough. It’s natural to worry that there will be underestimates and overruns. Indeed, first assessments of the damage have pegged costs at a quarter of a billion dollars. But that still doesn’t give Nenshi the right to make free with the $52 million, using it for two years to generate a $104-million cash flow for flood recovery projects.

Ald. John Mar is teetering between the “process with Calgarians that indicates they wanted the money back,” and his concerns about just how much money is forthcoming from both provincial and federal levels of government.

Premier Alison Redford says there’s no need for Calgary to assume it will have to raise taxes to drum up flood restoration money. However, that is the option the city will have to choose if in fact the promised funding falls short of the final repair bill.

Nenshi appeared a little on the defensive this week when he said, “Look, we’re not creating flood devastation to spend the money on.” However, the citizens of Calgary did not create the flood devastation, either, Mr. Mayor, but it’s not a question of who did what. Nor should council be playing a childish game of “finders keepers” with the taxpayers. It’s a question of whom the money belongs to, and what the money’s owners indicated they want done with it.

We agree with Ald. Andre Chabot that the place to start is with the fiscal stability reserve fund, which is intended to be used during emergencies, and stands at $295 million.

It seems to us that the city can take $104 million from there, if needs be, and use it, as Chabot says, as “a rolling bank account.”

The $52 million turned up in the spring, after property taxes went up more than the 5.1 per cent hike the budget had provided for, while the provincial government’s share of the education property tax dropped.

That, clearly, is money that citizens paid in good faith. Come hell or high water — and regardless of the high water — it is owed back to the citizens.

It’s a question of whom the money belongs to, and what the money’s owners indicated they want done with it