A surgeon heals with a knife, cutting where cuts need to be made, to save the whole body. To do so takes courage and a steady hand, neither of which were in great abundance during Monday's marathon city council meeting to go through the core services review recommendations.
A recommended 30 per cent increase in business licence fees was chopped down to a five per cent annual increase over the next three years.
A 10 per cent annual increase over three years to renting Masich Place Stadium was also brought down to five per cent.
Five per cent seemed to be the theme of the day. Suggested hikes to arena and pool fees started at 15 per cent, fell to 10 and then finally settled at five per cent.
Despite the recommendations of the consultant hired to assess fees as part of the core service review, despite the recommendations of new city manager Beth James and the encouragement of Mayor Shari Green, the rest of city council simply didn't have the nerve to do more.
Coun. Brian Skakun called the proposed 30 per cent business license increase "massive."
Really?
Could any of the local banks or credit unions or any of the local hotels afford to pay an extra $180 on their business licence fee next year? They all paid about $600 each this year.
He called it unfair for small business owners.
Really?
Could a basic home-based business owner afford to pay an extra $36.30, a whopping 10 cents per day, on top of the $121 they paid this year?
Perhaps Skakun was worried about the licence fee for escort services, exotic dancing and body rubs. A 30 per cent hike for their business licence would cost an extra $1,089.90. Those businesses paid $3,633 for their licence this year, exactly three times what heavy industrial manufacturing operations that take up more than eight hectares of land pay.
The Citizen's business licence under "printing or publishing" cost $242 in 2013, so a 30 per cent hike would have cost the paper another $72.60. While $72.60 increases have a way of adding up for businesses, an extra six bucks a month to pay for our business licence wouldn't have broken the bank.
The 30 per cent increase would have brought the cost of business licences up to what it costs the city to administer business licenses, what the bureaucrats call a "full cost-recovery model." In other words, by refusing the 30 per cent increase, city council endorsed the idea of continuing to subsidize the operation of private businesses.
Many, but not all of the councillors, seemed to get locked into a five per cent increases across the board, because it was easy, didn't require too much thinking and seemed fair - but that's nonsense. What would have been fair for council to do is follow the Mayor's lead and do the hard work of assessing each increase on its merits before making a decision. Business owners could have made the adjustment with the full increase, she argued, while other groups and residents deserved more time to absorb the increases.
The days of municipal government subsidizing the activities of citizens and business owners is over, thanks to downloading from the provincial and federal governments. But some residents, for some reason, still believe city hall owes them something.
What city hall does owe all residents is to tax residents carefully and wisely and then spend those tax dollars in the same careful and wise manner.
Mayor Green sought the careful consideration and bold action of a surgeon from her council colleagues Monday.
Unfortunately, from many of them, she didn't get it.
