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10:24 p.m. - 2002-10-07
Growth Experience
Lots of controversy in the news right now.

City council passed a total ban on smoking in all public places. While the mayor was out of town a vote was slipped onto the agenda that moved the implementation date to January 2003. The mayor returned home and the date has now been returned to January 2008. The Provincial government plans to piggyback legislation onto this by-law so it will affect all of Alberta.

The other night there were two ambulances available to respond to calls in the city. All the others were full or already responding to calls. Part of the problem was there were no beds available in any of the hospitals so patients waited for several hours in the ambulances that transported them. Two ambulances to serve 1 million people. This is a provincial responsibility. They claim that there is no problem.

New proposal to charge by the bag for garbage pick up. Six months ago the thought was to limit the number of bags per week per residence. This already occurs during peak times.

A senior medical officer of our health care system was fired by the Provincial government after he spoke in support of the Kyoto Protocol. Apparently his expertise isn't wanted on a health issue.

A proposal to annex land on all sides of the city because of the growth. We are gaining so many new residents each year that even people with jobs can't afford to rent let alone buy homes. New homes are sold before the ground is even broken. Our homeless population has exploded as a result. In a city where the temperature can drop to -30 F/C within an hour with little warning, the results could be deadly.

Major traffic tie ups daily. Three on one key freeway just this morning. Building adequate connectors or expanding existing roads will take a minimum of 2 years and hundreds of millions of dollars. Communities squaring off over who will bear the brunt of the increased traffic and new roadways.

In some ways if our city's economic growth should slow down there might be several benefits. Most of the above stories are in some way influenced by demands for services that just can't be supplied fast enough. Sometimes bigger is not always better.

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