I would walk 1000 miles

Lets take a look at the past week here in London.  The stories I have read have made me shake my head very, very hard.  The LTC is asking the City of London for $500,000 for a pilot project involving rerouting the buses off of Dundas Street.  The reasoning behind this is to see if they can remove the congestion from the downtown corridor.  Yet the congestion from downtown is not buses but people.  Moving the buses will do nothing in regards to that.  The other issue I have in regards to this is that during the sink hole that hit our core, the buses had to be rerouted anyways.  So we already have a timeline in which to look at the effects of the LTC running on King Street and Queen Street , without having to spend $500,000 of taxpayers money.  Perhaps they just did not pay any attention during the sink hole to see if there was a positive effect of removing the buses off of Dundas Street.  If you recall the only time Dundas and Richmond were uncongested was during the LTC strike.  In effect the LTC strike that stopped bringing people to the corridor of downtown resulted in a massive loss of revenue for the stores and restaurants.  So, no buses downtown equals bad for business.  Moving the buses to King and Queen Street changes nothing in regards to congestion.  Why do we need to spend half a million dollars again?

Meanwhile back at the horseshoe.  City councillors are again pushing for full-time status, which will be followed by a push for full-time pay.  According to a ‘citizens group’ study , Councillors are working an average of 41 hours per week in regards to City business.  Now we don’t know who the group is that did the study, nor do we know what it is that Councillors are doing for 41 hours per week.  We are just to assume that it is actual work that is of benefit to the citizens of London.  Though as past history has shown us its more likely they were coming up with another flavour of the week pilot project.  Or another how can we compare London to another city plan.
As the current council will be changing drastically after the upcoming election, would it not be prudent to hold off on any changes in regards to pay until then?  As well, do we not think that we should also be able to see proof of what it is we are paying for?  In the world outside of City hall employees have to show how much they work per work, as well as show why they deserve a pay increase.  It does not matter if the Jones are paying x number of dollars and we are only getting y number of dollars.  It is becoming close to facing a council that will want to unionize itself and go into a collective bargaining agreement with the citizens of London.  We elect them to perform a specific duty to our city, it is high time to hold them accountable to that which they do.  No more free money for no service.  We have seen enough of that over the last decade to last us a lifetime.  Let’s not be afraid to use the one thing we are all born with yet some ignore.  It is called common sense.