REGINA – For the next six weeks, Regina residents can expect to hear from both sides of the private public partnership debate for the city’s waste water treatment plant. The city is likely to spend as much as $340,000 on it’s “Vote No” campaign leading up to the referendum on September 25th. That includes $70,000 for robocalls, administered by a Saskatoon-based company, called Saskatchewan Direct Marketing Services.
“He introduces himself, says who he is,” explained one voter Carol Killpatrick, of an automated call she received from Michael Fougere. In the message, the mayor encourages citizens to vote no to losing a $58.5 million grant from the federal government and to vote no to another $276 a year on your utility bill.
That messaging concerns Killpatrick: “I think and I feel that we should be able to equally hear from both sides.
Others think the city should be impartial. Debate at Wednesday’s executive committee meeting questioned the administration’s involvement in the campaign.
“We’re spending all this money to have a referendum and then we’re spending all this other money to tell them how to vote, and it’s all their money,” said Councillor Shawn Fraser.
Fraser also pointed out the $276 figure is an estimate – generated by city administration. It assumes the repayment would be over four years, but that would be subject to council approval.
Jim Holmes of Regina Water Watch said that figure is misleading.
“(It) is a decision which belongs to council, not the administration. So now we not only have unelected officials telling us how to vote, we have unelected officials setting our tax rate. ”
However, some don’t see the problem in the city pushing its agenda.
“We’ve heard a lot about how it’s anti-democratic for them to be getting involved, but I don’t know if I agree with that. The public voted for the council, the council unanimously adopted this position,” said Peter McCaffery, a policy analyst from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
“So why wouldn’t we say vote no? To me, it’s not an issue, it’s a logical thing that you would do to defend your position,” said Mayor Fougere.
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