“We are a society of laws and not of men. But when bad men make bad laws, and when unprincipled officials compromise good ones, then citizens have a responsibility to protect their rights and exercise responsible agitation to keep governments from staggering drunkenly from wrong to wrong merely to preserve their own immortality.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
The borough of Côte des Neiges/NDG’s decision to send out garbage inspectors and impose fines of up to $1,000 for inappropriately recycled garbage or for being put out too early underlines what is wrong with so much of our governance and laws. Lest anyone think this is strictly a city absurdity, think again. This kind of mindset of demonizing citizens and deflecting from elected officials responsibilities to handle the core priorities can strike any place any time.
Montrealers are already the highest taxed urban citizens in North America. Our taxes are supposed to go for the basics. Garbage collection, snow removal, public security, public transit and water. It should not be up to the citizens to pay additional costs to manage what they have already paid for.
Too many politicians today squander public monies on pork barrel vote grabbing schemes, then complain that they have to fine and tax more just to deal with the basics. An example of that at the municipal level is some $10 million spent on skateboarding rinks in the west and east ends.
At other times they just lie. As when the city insisted it needed to effectively triple parking meter rates, then announced just six weeks later record profits from the management of parking and parking meters in its partnership with the Board of Trade. And sometimes they just don’t know what to say.
One sad, but amusing, aspect of the garbage fine story is that almost every elected official denied its veracity when first approached. The mayor of the borough even said they don’t fine such amounts for things so minor. But when the borough’s senior bureaucrat confirmed it, all the élus piled on and said it was necessary to teach citizens that the borough was serious. And herein lies the crux of the problem.
The job of elected officials is not to engage in social engineering. We’re talking about garbage! The vision of public monies going to pay city employees to inspect garbage bags on curbs and then determine who owns them is absurd. To impose fines for citizens doing what is the city’s work is criminal. It is double taxation at best and outright theft at worst.
This latest exercise in nanny-statism is as crazy as the fines levied at storekeepers in town who don’t clean the public sidewalks in front of their establishments. That should not be their responsibility. Their taxes pay for the city to do that. For municipal politicians to offset these responsibilities on citizens is an admission that they can’t do their jobs. Actions like these should be grounds for impeachment.
Before the next municipal elections, perhaps we should demand that those running for office outline specific plans for rectifying the problems in the five core areas we mentioned above. If they have no ideas, then maybe they should be disqualified from running. Before we allow municipal leaders to engage in harebrained schemes of bikepaths and tramways in a city with six months of winter, we need to know that they can handle the basics.
Montreal didn’t need the cleanliness fines; or the garbage fines or the non-regulation ashtray fines. This city is about as clean as an urban centre can get. The only reason that officials engage in demonizing the public is that it deflects from their inability to get things right. And that inability stems not only from a lack of imagination but also from a lack of guts in dealing with public unions and demanding the kind of quality and quantity of work every big city needs.
All citizens need to demonstrate a bit of civil, and civic, disobedience. Perhaps it is time for a tax revolt. After all, it seems the more you pay the more fines and extra rates are levied. So maybe we should all stop paying until the pols get real. And if they don’t, then as the saying goes throw the bums out!
