Municipal governments are the closest level of government to the citizens. They administer everything from police and fire services to roadway maintenance to bylaws related to businesses. You can’t renovate your home, open a business, or hold a festival without getting a permit from the local government. Assuming they grant it.
Despite managing billions of tax dollars and imposing laws that impact everybody, municipal governments are the ones that voters pay the least attention to.
In the last federal election, over 62 percent of eligible voters came out to cast a ballot. In Alberta’s last provincial election, the turnout was 59 percent. Contrast that with municipal elections in some major cities. In Calgary’s last election, only 46 percent of citizens bothered to vote despite the mayor’s position being open. In Edmonton, 37 percent of voters cast ballots while in Toronto 38 percent took the time to vote.
It’s an odd cycle and pattern nationwide. People are constantly upset with their civic governments over a myriad of issues, but rather than letting that galvanize their intent to go out and vote, it appears to make them give up and stay home. It’s not healthy for democracy and it doesn’t lead to good government.
Citizens sleepwalk through municipal elections, then express shock when they find themselves subject to bylaws that make no sense to them enacted by people voted in to the city council.
All of these could have been foreseen, and it’s to people’s loss that they only started taking action once the bylaw was already in action, rather than proactively being concerned about municipal affairs.
It doesn’t help that the media landscape has shrunk. Twenty years ago, the Calgary city council chamber would be packed with reporters from several outlets at every meeting. Now, the seats typically sit empty aside from some political gadflies and the occasional concerned citizen. Council actions go unreported and few citizens bother watching the dull council meetings online. Crazy motions and bylaws are proposed and passed with little notice until the outcomes are felt. Calgary’s single-use item bylaw was passed over a year ago, yet people were silent until they realized they were expected to bring a reusable bag to the drive-through window of their preferred fast-food outlet.
Toronto is grappling with a nearly 10 percent property tax increase while spending tax-payer money on renaming Yonge-Dundas Square, and London, Ont., is facing an 8.8 percent tax hike.
It’s happening in every city in every province in Canada and it likely will have to get worse before it gets better. While eyes are drawn to the political fireworks in Ottawa and provincial legislatures, people pay less attention to their municipal leaders than ever.
On the municipal governance level, citizens have abdicated their democratic responsibility and the price for that indifference is growing every year.
