-Nasty Politics Impacting Grand [sic] Prairie

Politics can be nasty. It gets all of us angry at times.

The thing that gets me the most angry: when mis-truths or outright lies are told, especially when they impact our most vulnerable residents. I’m sad to see an attack ad going around that does just that to the people of our community.

Due to this ad, I’ve had people contact me in fear of services they rely on being cut. The problem? There are programs this ad says will receive “big cuts,” but which will have their service levels preserved (and sometimes increased) going into 2020. Vulnerable Grande Prairie residents are being scared by mis-truths. That isn’t acceptable.

[EDIT: After publishing this post, I received a very interesting Facebook comment from the organisation responsible for these ads. You can see it at the very bottom of this post]

As a politician, you can’t spend as much time on social media as I do without getting a thick skin. Criticism against me and my colleagues, even when it is ridiculous, very rarely bothers me.

I also welcome real criticism of the City budget. I put A LOT of time and energy into letting people know what Council is up to. The reason for that: I want to hear honest feedback.

But this ad going around is different. It isn’t designed to further genuine conversation in our community. It isn’t just an attack on politicians, but also on vulnerable residents. It contains mistruths. And I’ve got to say: it really bothers me.

If you haven’t seen it yet, this ad is an attack on Premier Kenney. It goes after him based on the cuts supposedly being made by “his allies on Grand [sic] Prairie City Council.” It then lists a bunch of City services that are supposedly getting cut in 2020. The problem: many of the services listed aren’t getting reduced. In fact, some are seeing INCREASED investment by the City.

The ad bothers me in and of itself. It also bothers me because of the people that made it. I know they are better than this. This group (which isn’t a political party) serves our community. This group’s voice is important. And I know it often makes worthwhile contributions to political discourse. So seeing it put out an ad like this is saddening.

I’m annoyed that the creators of this ad claim to be looking out for our community but can’t bother to spell our name right. I don’t appreciate Council being painted with a partisan brush that simply isn’t true. But what really angers me: this ad is telling vulnerable people in our community to fear service cuts that aren’t part of our budget. These people have enough to worry about. They don’t have to have added stress created by mis-truths.

Below, I’ve got details about two [of many] things that this ad gets wrong.

But before I get to that, I want to be crystal clear about a few things:

  • Providing feedback, including critical feedback, on government decisions is SO important. I want to see more, not less, of it. But it should be based on facts, not mis-truths.

  • Overall, I’m happy with the City’s budget for 2020. A lot of the savings found will come in the form of being more efficient. Whenever government can deliver the same services for less money: it needs to do that.

  • The budget does involve some service reductions. And I’m supportive of most of those. Removing funding from low priority programs to protect higher priority programs is the responsible thing to do.

  • Provincial and federal governments created a hole worth ~$4.5 million in our budget. This certainly had impacts. However, the City response to these were measured and reasonable. I also don’t think senior government were the main cause of many changes the City is making. For its entire term, this Council has been focused on spending money more efficiently and targeting it better. Again: that is the right thing to do, no matter what is going on with other governments.

  • While this budget has some service reductions, it also INCREASES funding to some key areas. Some examples: the City will be bringing on 5 more RCMP officers, more tax revenue will be going toward road rehabilitation, and we’ll be investing more in making City facilities accessible to people with disabilities.

  • Despite being supportive of the City’s budget overall, there are parts of the budget I don’t like. During deliberations, there were votes I was on the losing side of. I strongly disagree with some of Council’s decisions. So I can confidently say: it’s fair enough to take issue with aspects of the budget. And it is important you let Council know what parts of it you don’t like. But it isn’t ok to speak in mis-truths.

If you want more information about Budget 2020, click here. If you want more information about how provincial and federal decisions impacted it, click here. And if you want more information about how the City is working to spend money more efficiently and target it better, click here.

As you learn more about the budget: please let me know what you think. Because, as long as it is based on reality, feedback (including critical feedback) is SO important for elected representatives to hear. My preferred way to chat is always by meeting for coffee. You can also call me at 780-402-4166, email me at dbressey@cityofgp.com, or find me on Facebook.

Following is a look at two mis-truths in this ad that are targeted at vulnerable residents. There are many other things this ad gets wrong, but for the sake of time I’m only picking apart these two.

Worth noting: I’m not linking to the ad in question. And I’d encourage you not to link to it or go seeking it out. Things like it should be pushed back on, but their voice should not be amplified.

Thanks for reading!

-Dylan

HOME SUPPORT

What the ad says: Home support is receiving “big cuts”

What the truth is: There are no changes being made to home support

The Details:

The City provides subsidized in-home support for people with disabilities. This allows these residents to have a higher quality of life, and to live independently for longer.

Over the past year, administration has looked at ways to deliver this same service for less money. That wasn’t a unique-to-home-support exercise: looking for efficiency is happening in programs across the City.

Administration wasn’t successful in finding ways to save money on in-home support without seriously compromising the service delivered. Their findings were discussed by Council.

During budget deliberations, administration came forward with potential changes that could be made to home support, but that weren’t recommended. Basically, what they said: “if you want to find more savings, we could change home support, but those changes would have big and bad impacts on the people served, so we don’t think you should change this service.” Following administration’s advice, Council did not direct any changes to home support.

This ad makes people who rely on a bit of help around the house think that this vital service is being cut. In doing so, it is misleading those residents. That isn’t right.

ACCESSIBLE TRANSIT

What the ad says: Accessible transit services are receiving “big cuts”

What the truth is: Accessible transit services are staying where they are for now. I’m optimistic they will actually see improvements over the next year

The details:

Until recently, accessible transit service was delivered by a non-profit organisation, the Disabled Transportation Society (DTS). Due to a huge increase in demand, DTS services were suffering, and its long-term viability was in doubt. In conversations with the DTS board and in response to requests from the community, Council decided to bring accessible transit in house: it is now part of our Transit department.

When we took accessible transit on, the mandate to administration was to maintain the level of service in the short term and look for opportunities to IMPROVE it in the long term. That hasn’t changed. Accessible Transit is running for about 425 service hours per week, which it was what was also happening under DTS. Now the City is working on learning how to get more passengers through during each service hour.

In Budget 2020, Council didn’t direct any changes to the service levels for accessible transit passengers. And we are having ongoing conversations about how to make accessible transit better.

What will change for public transit in 2020:

  • Since DTS is no longer operating, the $500,000 cash grant that used to be given to DTS is being re-allocated to the City Transit department.

  • Now that the City has a good understanding of what it takes to run accessible transit, some administrative processes are being streamlined to find efficiency. These changes won’t reduce service. In fact, they are a key part of figuring out how to improve it.

  • Some traditional (ie: non-accessible) transit routes will see reduced hours in 2020

If folks want to criticize some of the ACTUAL changes in Transit: fair enough. In fact, I’m against route reductions myself. But to say that we are budgeting for reductions to help those with disabilities is simply not true. In fact, the opposite is happening.

I’m proud that this Council has prioritized making Grande Prairie a better place to be for people of all abilities. Some parts of the Budget that support that:

  • Continuation of service levels for accessible transit

  • A one time injection of $200,000 allocated towards making City facilities more accessible (in addition to the $50,000 that is already budgeted annually)

  • A decision to go a head with Phase 4 of Downtown Rehabilitation in 2021. A big reason cited in support of this: this is a very daunting section of our core for people with mobility challenges to navigate

This ad makes people who rely on a bit of help to get around think that vital services are being cut. In doing so, it is misleading those residents. That isn’t right.

Addition on November 23: In response to this post, I’ve had a few people reach out to me saying “but accessible transit should be better than it is right now.” Although I’m happy to talk accessible transit in detail elsewhere, I don’t think this is the best place to do that. But briefly I do want to say: I completely agree that accessible transit can and should be improved from where it currently is. But to suggest that current services are getting “big cuts” in 2020 is not true.

A VERY INTERESTING RESPONSE

After I published this post, the organisation that created these ads commented on Facebook. The advertiser all but admits that, while these ads speak to very specific services, it wasn’t exactly sure what specific cuts got made.

This organisation should’ve known what cuts Council authorized. Council Budget Deliberations were webcast-ed. I know for a fact that many of the organisation’s members watched these deliberations. A similar organisation had members in Council Chambers throughout deliberations. And local media detailed all the cuts that got made (see here and here). City administration and Council also would’ve been happy to answer any specific questions that got asked about the budget.

This organisation had every opportunity to learn about what the 2020 Budget contained. There is no excuse for publishing wrong information that scares our vulnerable residents.

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Dylan BresseyComment