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3,000 acres of farmland, yet nowhere to build a pool.

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There are 3000 acres but nowhere to plant a pool. Councillor Buchanan asked Mr. Curtis the city manager, during budget deliberations November 20, 2018, if there was anywhere north of the river to build a pool, Mr. Curtis said no. Four years ago I was appointed to sit on the Community Action Committee to look at the need or recommendations for an Aquatic Centre in Red Deer. A new Mayor and a new Council and time was of the essence.

The city wanted in 2014 to renovate the downtown pool and it was obvious by the paperwork and answers. They repeated, Michener pool was owned by the province. Timberlands had no room available as it was filled with 3 planned high schools and sports fields. Hazlett Lake was too many years down the road, and the Canada Games was in 2019. It had to be built downtown.
That was 4 years ago and we are no closer to having a 50m pool, than we were 4 years ago. But now the city wants it built in Timberlands near the high schools. It would be like the Collicutt Centre near high schools. Also it will be like the Collicutt, in that it will be east of 30 Ave, between 29 Street and 69 Street. 30 Ave will become like Calgary’s Deerfoot Trail with all that traffic.
In about 300 acres we will have 3 high schools, sports fields, pickle ball courts and an aquatic centre, but in 3,000 acres north of 11A there is no room to park a pool.

Councillor Wong asked about, in my mind, the perfect spot just north of 11a near Hazlett Lake, visible to the QE2 and Mr. Curtis said the road allowance would be too narrow and they would have to buy private land to accommodate the pool and services. That would add uncertainty to the costs, but they do not mention that costs uncertainty when they talk about buying 2.5 acres of private land in the Timberlands. Is it a done deal, have they already made a conditional seal subject to council approval? I do not know.

Mr. Curtis reminded council that the city has had 2 opportunities to build a 50m pool in the last 20 years and they were squandered away. One when building the Collicutt and again when they renovated the downtown pool. Will they do it again?
The city just built the Servus Arena and the college just opened a new ice facility and the city wants to build a new rink to replace the Kinex arena when it fails. The Mayor says Red Deer services what it has. Looks like we will get another new arena, slated for the Dawe but many are expressing doubts about the feasibility of that venture and feel that it will be ultimately built by the Collicutt Centre.

In 2001 the city opened it’s 4th and last pool with a population of about 70,000 people. The city services what it has. If you read the financial statements you will notice 2 things that our population is just shy of 100,000 people and that they expect the Michener Pool will be closed at some point in the next capital budgetary cycle. Leaving us with 3 pools.
If we renovate downtown pool we could be downtown to 2 pools for awhile then back to 3 pools for many years to come. We only build or renovate pools every 20-30 years and by then the Dawe and Collicutt pools will be 70 and 50 years old.
Using the Aquatic Centre as a catalyst to spur development if we built it north of 11a where development has yet to start. Shoehorning it in with 3 new high schools, new sports fields and pickle ball courts will not get the same bang for the buck.
Why not combine the new ice rink and 50 meter pool into a Collicutt style complex in an empty field on the north west corner of Red Deer like we did with the Collicutt Center on the south-east corner of Red Deer.

Spurring development and enjoyed by 60% of recreation facility users in Red Deer, far surpassing all other pools combined.
This will not happen, because the city is too focused on process and awaiting good fortune to come a calling. I watched the debate and I noticed that council sits in a semi-circle facing in and I marvelled at how their attention is focused in and not out.
I also noticed that the Mayor and City Manager sit so much higher than council, reigning supreme over the lowly council. Enforced in my mind by little actions like the Mayor telling a councillor his question has taken 6 minutes, though there are no time lines to follow. Shouldn’t an elected councillor in his elected duties as guardians of the public purse be allowed the same latitude and time as the equally elected mayor?

We have 9 strong and very intelligent elected members looking after our well being, should they not be allowed to bring their strength to the table? We have people trained in law, economics, planning, business, agriculture, politics, law enforcement, education, history, to name but a few. Showcase them don’t muzzle them.

If they have concerns don’t dismiss them or limit their time, get to the bottom of it, that is why we elected them. The city has for many years survived the booms and busts of the Alberta economy but we have not recovered and are not enjoying the rebounding economy like the rest of the province for the last few years, why? Our economy is failing while everyone else is enjoying growth and our declining population is facing more doom and gloom while those around us our seeing positive growth. Perhaps it is time to stop waiting for potential future development to land in our lap and make Red Deer attractive to businesses, residents, tourists and athletes to name but a few.

As one gentleman wrote about us hosting the Canada Games but we can’t hold some of the events, and we are showcasing to the country what we don’t have. Poor publicity. If only we had looked outward and acted those other times. Just saying.

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Anger towards Trudeau government reaches new high among Canadians: poll

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Canadians’ anger towards Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government has reached a record high, according to a new poll.   

According to a national survey published by Nanos Research this month, 31% of Canadians feel anger and pessimism towards the Trudeau government, which marks an all-time low in satisfaction for government leadership.  

“Which of the following feelings best describes your views of the federal government in Ottawa?” the poll questioned.  

In addition to the 31% feeling angry and pessimistic respectively, 11% feel uninterested, while only 1% and 10% feel satisfaction and optimism, respectively. 6% were unsure of their feelings towards the Trudeau government.  

“Feelings of anger toward the federal government have increased or held steady in every region, with the largest increases among residents of Quebec (December: 12%; March: 24%) and Atlantic Canada (December: 21%; March: 38%). Pessimism and anger remain the top emotions Canadians say best describe their views of the federal government in Ottawa,” the research found.  

In recent months, Trudeau’s popularity has plummeted, with polls projecting a massive Conservative victory in the upcoming election.   

Trudeau’s popularity has been falling and his government has been embroiled in scandal after  scandal, one of the latest being a federal court ruling that the prime minister’s use of the Emergencies Act to end the 2022 Freedom Convoy was “not justified.”    

Even top Liberal party stalwarts have called for him to resign.    

Indeed, Canadians anger and dissatisfaction with Trudeau has become a topic of conversation on many social media platforms, with Canadians detailing how the Trudeau government has made their life less affordable.   

Numerous videos are being uploaded to social media by Canadians explaining that they struggling to make ends meet amid the rising cost of living and Trudeau’s ever-increasing carbon tax, while many immigrants are telling others not to come to Canada.  

 

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Frontier Centre for Public Policy

Budget 2024 as the eve of 1984 in Canada

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Michael Melanson

Those who claim there are unmarked burials have painted themselves into a corner. If there are unmarked burials, there have had to be murders because why else would anyone attempt to conceal the deaths?

The Federal Government released its Budget 2024 last week. In addition to hailing a 181% increase in spending on Indigenous priorities since 2016, “Budget 2024 also proposes to provide $5 million over three years, starting in 2025-26, to Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada to establish a program to combat Residential School denialism.” Earlier this spring, the government proclaimed:

The government anticipates the Special Interlocutor’s final report and recommendations in spring 2024. This report will support further action towards addressing the harmful legacy of residential schools through a framework relating to federal laws, regulations, policies, and practices surrounding unmarked graves and burials at former residential schools and associated sites. This will include addressing residential school denialism.

Like “Reconciliation,” the exact definition of what the Federal government means by “residential school denialism” is not clear. In this vague definition, there is, of course, a potential for legislating vindictiveness.

What further action is needed to address “the harmful legacy of residential schools” except to enforce a particular narrative about the schools as being only harmful? Is it denialism to point out that many students, such as Tomson Highway and Len Marchand, had positive experiences at the schools and that their successful careers were, in part, made possible by their time in residential school? If the study of history is subordinated to promoting a particular political narrative, is it still history or has it become venal propaganda?

Since the sensational May 27, 2021, claim that 215 children’s remains had been found in a Kamloops orchard, the Trudeau government has been chasing shibboleths. The Kamloops claim remains unsubstantiated to this day in two glaring ways: no names of children missing from the Kamloops IRS (Indian Residential Schools) have been presented and no human remains have been uncovered. For anyone daring to point out this absence of evidence, their reward is being the target of a witch hunt. As we recently witnessed in Quesnel, B.C., to be labeled as a residential school denialist is to be drummed out of civil society.

If we must accept a particular political narrative of the IRS as the history of the IRS, does our freedom of conscience and speech have any meaning?

To the discredit of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, fictions of missing and murdered children circulating long before the Commission’s inception were subsumed by the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission). Unmarked graves and burials were incorporated into the TRC’s work as probable evidence of foul play. In the end, the TRC found no evidence of any murders committed by any staff against any students throughout the entirety history of the residential schools. Unmarked graves are explained as formerly marked and lawful graves that had since become lost due to neglect and abandonment. Unmarked burials, if they existed, could be construed as evidence of criminal acts, but such burials associated with the schools have never been proven to exist.

Those who claim there are unmarked burials have painted themselves into a corner. If there are unmarked burials, there have had to be murders because why else would anyone attempt to conceal the deaths? If there are thousands of unmarked burials, there are thousands of children who went missing from residential schools. How could thousands of children go missing from schools without even one parent, one teacher, or one Chief coming forward to complain?

There are, of course, neither any missing children nor unmarked burials and the Special Interlocutor told the Senate Committee on Indigenous People: “The children aren’t missing; they’re buried in the cemeteries. They’re missing because the families were never told where they’re buried.”

Is it denialism to repeat or emphasize what the Special Interlocutor testified before a Senate Committee? Is combating residential school denialism really an exercise in policing wrongthink? Like the beleaguered Winston in Orwell’s 1984, it is impossible to keep up with the state’s continual revision of the past, even the recent past.

For instance, the TRC’s massive report contains a chapter on the “Warm Memories” of the IRS. Drawing attention to those positive recollections is now considered “minimizing the harms of residential schools.”

In 1984, the state sought to preserve itself through historical revision and the enforcement of those revisions. In the Trudeau government’s efforts to enforce a revision of the IRS historical record, the state is not being preserved. How could it be if the IRS is now considered to be a colossal genocide? The intent is to preserve the party in government and if it means sending Canada irretrievably down a memory hole as a genocidaire, so be it.

Michael Melanson is a writer and tradesperson in Winnipeg.

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