When are the mayor and councillors of Saanich going to listen to the people?
I’m almost 80 and I’ve voted in every federal, provincial and municipal election and just about every referendum since I was able to. So when the vote for the plan to borrow $150 million of my money for a new operations centre came up, I naturally looked for a referendum. The one I got (thanks SOS), had only one box to put an X in, and it was for No, which is what I chose. If there had been a box for Yes, I would have put my X there.
So now what? We could have a proper referendum immediately, or have the referendum next October, or maybe we could circumvent democracy and just split it up into several projects and bypass the people. Guess which one of these options is the least costly and can get us a new operations centre ASAP? Waiting a year will just cost more, and several mini projects will for sure be the most expensive.
If you folks bypass democracy by fooling around with multiple projects, I guess I’ll just have to leave your names blank when the municipal election occurs in October 2026. Democracy costs money, and having a referendum on large projects is costly. But the alternative is not acceptable. Listen to the people and ask them what they want.
John Arduini
Saanich
