Once again, city administration only cares about optics and not the taxpayer; the $350,000 being spent (which will not have included all the administrative work in preparing reports, meetings, et cetera), to rename Government Centre Station only five years after being stripped of its Grandin Station name shows that no one cares about taxpayers.
In less than half a dozen years, the taxpayers will have spent nearly three-quarters of a million dollars on this foolishness, but no one in administration
cares. This is just one example of why business will continue to flee the city. Why should they stay when they see expenditures like this?
Larry Kassian, Edmonton
Double-flag law costly for schools
Under the UCP government’s flag display regulation, schools must fly both the national flag of Canada and the flag of Alberta outside the school building during the school year — each on its own separate flagpole.
Did the government fully consider the practical impact before putting this regulation into force? Most Alberta schools have only one flagpole outside their main doors. Installing a second pole can cost each school thousands of dollars, yet the UCP is providing $0 to help cover the expense. Instead, school boards must pay for it entirely from their already-limited budgets. Every dollar spent on new flagpoles is a dollar that cannot be used to better support students in the classroom.
If this regulation is truly a priority, the government should fund it. Alberta students deserve investment in teachers, learning resources, mental-health supports, and safe, well-maintained schools — not unfunded mandates that divert money away from their education.
Stephanie Shostak, Edmonton
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