Editor's Note: This op-ed appeared in the July 23, 2010 edition of the Edmonton Journal.
"Lose weight while you sleep." "Congratulations UK Lottery Winner!" "Enlarge your..." well, you get the picture. Every day e-mail inboxes are bombarded with outrageous claims from spammers around the world looking to bilk Canadians out of their life savings. However, closer to home it's too often governments working hand-in-hand with legitimate businesses to pilfer money from the public with similarly outrageous promises. In Edmonton's case, if the current downtown arena request was sent via e-mail, the subject line would probably read something like this: "Free tax dollars from Revitalization Levy pays for new arena!"
