Sprinklers raise questions about city management

By Letter to the Editor on February 26, 2020.

The recent news on the Coulee Ridge development makes you question on how well the city is being managed.

The reasoning for the subsidy of sprinklers is that the development is to far from existing fire stations which cost over $16 million to construct with the justification of better response time. This seems to be laying the foundation for another fire hall, which then demonstrates poor planning on the relocations, if they are out of date after just two years.

The question should be why was this development approved? During the recent State of the City function our mayor stated how he is disappointed with the current state of finances for the city. The mayor needs to look no further than council to see why we are in this position.

Only Coun. Kris Samraj has come out against the development and sprinkler subsidy. Council has to learn that you make money in the nickels and dimes; by giving away $100,000 here and there you create problems. This combined with the huge losses at the Canalta Centre and Esplanade are some of the reasons we have the taxes we do.

Council is unwilling to make cuts so they force the citizens of Medicine Hat to make cuts by raising our taxes. Many in Medicine Hat are already suffering with bankruptcies up 20% in the last month, these people need help now.

Alan Rose

Medicine Hat

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