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speakup

In Bathurst, as of last week, the mayor and all but one member of council had confirmed his or her intention to reoffer for another four years of guiding the city's affairs.

As expected, there is the usual talk of job creation, keeping our youth here and bringing back those people – youth and otherwise – who have already left for better employment prospects elsewhere. Familiar platitudes these days to the local electorate in any election, be it municipal, provincial or federal.

All well and good, except as always, such talk tends to be long on generalities and mighty short on specifics. The questions that voters need to be asking each incumbent are as follows: Exactly what have you done over the last four years to foster job creation? What results have been achieved?"

To phrase things another way, what new businesses have set up here or expanded over the past our years that council played a role in attracting or helping? Exactly how many jobs have been created?

Anyone reoffering should have this information pretty handy, given that job creation is a major issue in this region. After all, job creation is tied to everything else - if there are jobs, youth will stay and youth will return. If there are new businesses, the tax base grows. With a bigger tax base, there is more money for services and infrastructure, without having to raise taxes.

And speaking of taxes: while they were not raised for 2008 at the municipal level, they went up 12 cents in total (per $100 of assessment) since 2004. No small thing in age of high prices and everyone's dollar needed to be stretched further (and yes, we realize the City of Bathurst, as a corporate body, is in the same situation).

The city and region are at a precarious point. The economic road ahead is uncertain, and the right hands are needed on the wheel.

Incumbents need to show us why they should remain in the driver's seat.