Comedian Jay Leno showed up one day at a company called MTT, which hand makes a jet turbine powered motorcycle.
Jet engines can be quite small, but still very powerful. You can even buy a model airplane with a real jet engine. The motorcycle has a list price of $175,000. Leno is a fan of anything with wheels. He has a huge collection of machines. He also has his own TV show called Jay Leno’s Garage.
Where are we going with this? Well, according to Jay himself, he showed up at MTT and said, “Hi! I’m a member of the ‘More Money than Brains Club’. I want to buy one of your bikes.”
This story came to mind when we heard about the money to be spent sending local town and county councillors off to the FCM conference in Halifax.

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A former High Prairie mayor, John Brodrick, usually thought it was a good idea to save taxpayer’s money. Not always, but usually.
He once thought that councillors and staff heading off to conferences should not only carpool, but also share hotel rooms. The rest of council never let him get to the point where he was going to say Tim Hortons and McDonald’s Happy Meals would be best choices for food.
Meanwhile, it isn’t unusual for councils of any sort to send all their members off to a meeting, conference or retreat, all at the expense of the whole community. If the meeting is in Newfoundland or Victoria, instead of Slave Lake or Edmonton, so much the better! Costs for such meetings, by the time you add up travel, rooms, honourarium and fees, can easily top $1,000 to $1,500 per day. Per person.
Ah but, we get back so much valuable information don’t we? Don’t we?

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There is a FoxNews TV show host who keeps asking a simple question. The question is, if immigration is so great at making a country like America richer [because almost all immigrants to America are poor, un-educated and unskilled] why isn’t Mexico one of the richest countries in the world?
So, if travel to conferences is so great, why don’t our councillors send, perhaps not themselves, but local members of the community? Why not our religious leaders, community organization members, and just about anybody interested in improving our communities?
If travel is so wonderful for our councils, it should be wonderful for everybody. Especially those who don’t have the opportunity, right?
And of course, since our councillors keep telling us how much they get out of these trips, can you imagine how fantastic our communities would be if even more people went?
Absolutely fabulous! Especially when paid by someone else!

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Taking this all a step further, last week, it was decided in one Alberta town that taxpayers foot the bill for custom tailored suits for councillors.
Wow! Talk about a clothing allowance!
There are lots of online services that say they will custom make a suit for between $500 and $1,000. This town went out of its way to get a local seamstress to knit out the councillors at $620 per head, er, per body. Cheap at the local’s price of $20 per hour, including material.
Gee! Free travel on the taxpayer’s dime. Food. Money for “serving the community.” Even pensions, to tide over the poor hard done by councillors who gave so much for so little reward.
Well, in this case it isn’t all bad.
This particular “clothing allowance” is at the Town of Vulcan in southern Alberta. If you don’t know, Vulcan bills itself as the “Home World” of Mr. Spock and other such aliens from the Star Trek universe. They like the theme, and have used the whole gimmick to promote Vulcan as a welcoming community and tourist attraction for a few decades.
The clothes for the councillors? Federation uniforms, of course!
According to news reports, the original uniforms are getting worn out. Some have been around for 17 years, passed from willing councillor to willing councillor.
All in all, in this case, we figure not a bad investment.
Not bad at all!

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Do you have photos from your Family Day adventures?
Email them to southpeacenews.com so we can put them up online, and print a selection of all the events next week.

Calendar cash. South Peace News donated $382.50 to the High Prairie Community Beautification Association at its Feb. 14 meeting. The money was raised from profits from the High Prairie History Calendars which went on sale in November 2017. One calendar features news stories, the other sports. Both are always available for sale at South Peace News at $15 each. More donations will be made as sales continue. In the photo, Beautification president Verna Ogg, left, accepts the donation from South Peace News publisher Mary Burgar. The money can be used for any project.