Jeff Burgar

It sometimes seems a wonderful idea if we could unscrew the top of a person’s head, look inside, and learn what they are thinking. Then perhaps, we would know for sure, instead of just guessing. But, since we are not allowed to peek, we will have to settle for second-best. Here are two instances, both of them involving the $400,000 or so the Town of High Prairie has managed to, well, to mis-manage some of the taxpayers out of money.

The first has to do with any of the big, water users in High Prairie. When their bill went down sometime last year, in some cases way, way down, what were they thinking? We could be talking $5,000, or $10,000 or $20,000 per year or more. So did any of those users phone the High Prairie town office and say, “Thank you! You are wonderful people!” Apparently, not. Did any big user think, “Gee, business is going down so much anyway, I just didn’t realize water was such a big deal I am saving so much.”? Maybe they thought “Ah ha! Somebody at the town office really messed up. And I sure am not going to tell them in case they want it back.” We will never know.

That’s the first instance. In the second instance, this whole fiasco can be called an example of The Law of Unintended Consequences.

When the thought of changing or reducing water / sewer rates came to council last year, Mayor Linda Cox wanted to know what the impact would be. She phrased her thinking badly, asking what would be the impact on the ten biggest water users.

Then town manager Keli Tamaklo, always quick to jump all over the mayor, responded with a malarkey of “That is confidential information.” Mayor Cox came back with, “I don’t want to know ‘who’ are our biggest users, I want to know what the impact will be.” As in, maybe only one or two users flush half the town water supply down the drain. Or, maybe not. But if one is going to make what could be a major change, should not one want to know what will really happen? You know, the consequence. Well?

“Absolutely not!” chorused several of the other councillors. They rushed, as a team of maybe four or so, to support their favourite town manager, Tamaklo. For those not around at the time, this was a fellow they deemed could do no wrong. Once again, Mayor Cox said, “I don’t want to know ‘who.’ I want to know ‘what’ will happen.”

So, lost in this nonsense and the self-interests of a handful of councillors the important question remained: Are the suggested adjustments going to make money, lose money, or break even? And now we mostly know. About $400,000 dollars. Lost.

People won’t be asked to dig for the money. Spending on improvements and repairs will be delayed. Fingers will be crossed nothing bad happens. There will be changes in rates, of course. And in the end, it will all blow over. It’s only somebody else’s money, after all.

The responsible politicians will once again bluster and biffle their way out of this one. All for the rest of us lacking the right can opener to peek inside those skulls. And also, all for councillors playing politics instead of working for taxpayers and the community.