City should stick to core services

Re. “Suburbs need to pay more: Iveson,” Sept. 12

Here is a suggested Principle No. 6 to accomplish some true fiscal restraint: stay out of the provincial kitchen i.e. stick to core city mandates.

Expenditure decisions should not venture into areas like housing and culture. Homeowners, through their property tax payments, should not be conscripted into subsidizing others’ lifestyle choices, such as that artfully uncommon proposal to utilize our expensive new community development “company” (ECDC) to build and operate 76 low-rent units for arts hobbyists on 118 Avenue for $43 million.

Please stop conscripting Edmonton homeowners into putting their money where the self-serving artful mouths are. Stop succumbing to artistically voiced special interests on the over-taxed homeowner’s dime.

As Mayor Don Iveson stated: “This is a fairness issue.” It’s finally time to sell off surplus properties not needed for core civic services, and to quit dragging us deeper down artfully cost-escalating rabbit holes.

Quit committing ever more property tax dollars to needless duplications of functions best left to our community leagues and the provincial government.

Thanks to the excesses of Iveson’s predecessor, we simply cannot afford any more Orange Hubs.

Lorne Billingsley-Smith, Edmonton