Empire-Advance

 

  We are in the midst of municipal election season in Manitoba. Quite frankly, it’s time for all the crabby coffee-shop political critics to man up and vote. And just as frankly, if there isn’t an election in your area due to an acclamation and if you aren’t happy with the acclamation, you missed your chance to be a candidate or find one. And furthermore, if you don’t vote, then I don’t want to hear much complaining from you. I was struck this past week by the similarity between the word complaint and complacency. Think about it, lack of results come from both words. It’s action that’s needed, not criticism of people but examining ideas. Many years ago, I was in a little country church near Rapid City and people were discussing ideas and praying for wisdom and guidance. Then a message came that I believe was from God. It doesn’t seem to happen often, but a man down the pew from us stood up and made a short talk, just a few words. I would say it was a prophecy. He said, “I believe God is saying to us that we have all that we need in our midst to do what God has called us to do. “Over the decades in Manitoba, that assessment has rung true many times. Our ancestors-built farms, schools, churches, halls, rinks and whole towns by gathering their God-given resources and turning them into the needs of our communities. It might be vision or money or skills, but the end result is almost always good. That story of development has been repeated hundreds of times across Manitoba. God calls us to action, be it out of need or desperation to get stuff done. I truly believe that Canada took a huge step backward in community self- reliance when during the1960s there was a huge move towards government grants. The Centennial grants in Canada and Manitoba (1967 and ’70 respectively) did help some communities for sure but nowadays every time people get together to do something, the very early question in the discussion is “Where can we get a grant?” If we had waited for grants in the first 60-70 years of Manitoba’s his[1]tory, we would have had a lot less growth. Now there’s grants for everything from community projects to public facilities to businesses. It should be no surprise that taxes are so high at all three levels of government as we have become very dependent on grants. It would be better if project funding could be guided by Community Foundations, I really like that model. Anyway, back to municipal politics. RM and town councils are the most important level of government. Their actions, or inactions, most closely affect our lives. I think that municipal councils and reeves and mayor should be paid a lot more and then do a lot more. Perhaps property taxes should be higher. And perhaps provincial and federal governments should dribble more money down to the municipal level, not as grants but as per capita funding with conditions that it be spent on roads, water and sewage works. Get your mind off Trump and world events and concentrate on the task in front you, it will be a lot more rewarding and fruitful as God reveals to you what He is asking you to do. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are the writer’s personal views and are not to be taken as being the view of the Banner & Press staff.