That was the thought that crossed my mind in reading Abbotsford City Councilor John Smith’s comments concerning the incinerator.

Councilor John Smith: “There is a cost to everything … at the end of the day, decisions are based on economic reality.”

If only that were true … the taxpayers of Abbotsford would not be groaning under the fiscal burden of: an Arena that cost nearly twice what was promised in enticing citizens to vote yes, million+ dollar arena operating losses where taxpayers were promised operating profits and multi-million dollar subsidies to the owners of a professional hockey team were politicians promised during the last municipal election bribes (aka subsidizes) would not be paid to seduce a team to play in the new arena.

Councilor John Smith: “Up until now, we have been dealing with emotion. Let’s now take a look at the cost,”

If only that were true … let us review the history of the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre. The pending arrival of the Bruins in Chilliwack had the Chiefs seeking a new home and in that regard approaching the city council of Abbotsford proposing a partnership to build a new arena as the new home for the Chief’s – a successful team with an established fan base in the Fraser Valley.

Remember city council’s response? That the city did not need a new arena … and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out of town.

Then suddenly council felt the need to not only build an arena but to build a bigger, fancier arena than the arena in Chilliwack or the new arena under construction as the new home of the Langley Chiefs.

Why after brushing off the Chiefs and their offer to partner with Abbotsford in building a new arena did council suddenly feel the need to build, on speculation and without a tenant such as the cavalierly dismissed Chiefs, not simply an arena but an arena that was bigger than those of Chilliwack and Langley?

Why, when it would have been cheaper to leave the arena without a team did council burden taxpayers with a further liability of $73 million? The attendance and results of this first year of operation suggest that taxpayers will be fortunate if they only end up paying out $20 million of the $73 million liability assumed on their behalf by council.

No responsible person, no responsible city council, would have made the decisions that Abbotsford’s city council using cost as the basis of the decision.

Only emotion can account for the complete disregard of economic reality in building the arena or in signing the agreement that the City of Abbotsford entered into with the Heat team ownership. Well … I suppose a complete lack of even an infinitesimal scrap of financial common sense or substance use could also account for such a divorce from economic reality.

Of course “Let’s now take a look at the cost,” only works if you do your homework. That way you can avoid failing to include costs necessary to maintain the warranty on jungle gym equipment – markedly improving the accuracy of ‘estimated costs’ and lessening the number of 100% cost overruns or losses in place of promised profits.

While he hopes an unbiased analysis of the numbers will show incineration is not cost-efficient, (Councilor John) Smith says he would oppose the WTE (waste to energy), even if it was cost-friendly.

Aha! Now that statement reflects the actual way that Abbotsford’s current council acts – if fiscal reality does not support the action you want to undertake – ignore the financial facts/reality and do whatever it is you want, pursue your priorities and ignore the cost to the city, its citizens and taxpayers.

Council pursuing its own priorities, no matter how inappropriate or costly to taxpayers those priorities are, is how you end up with the city being “unable” to afford to subsidize minor amateur hockey in Abbotsford by $9,500 while “able’ to afford to subsidize professional hockey and the ownership of the professional team by $3,000,000 (approximately, considering direct subsidy to the team and the indirect subsidy of arena operating costs).

Councilor’s personal priorities is why the minor hockey rate increase proceed “as it was necessary to cover operational cost increases” while the professional team does not cover any, much less increases, of the operating costs of their arena.

Council’s priorities have resulted in the city imposing double digit fee increases for the use of city recreation fields and facilities over the past several years; increases that have resulted in an increasing number of families being unable to afford their children’s participation in youth sports and recreational activities.

As a grandfather of my acquaintance was lamenting – the cost of baseball for his grandson has gone from $45 to $100 over the past three years making affordability an issue for his family.

It is not just children who have been affected by these double digit fee increases. Lack of affordability resulted in me no longer being able to afford a pool pass; for the first time in my long residence in Abbotsford I found myself without a pass and dealing with the negative physical and mental health consequences of not being able to swim as needed.

Personally my priorities dictate that fees for fields and facilities should not be being raised ever higher in order to have funds to subsidize a professional hockey team and the council ego project better known as the Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Centre.

Why is it that Parks and Recreation spent $135,000 (plus however much they went over budget) to buy used jungle gym equipment (to be rented out to those who can afford the rental cost) instead of spending the funds on repairs to Matsqui Village pool?

That the Langley Museum has a perfectly fine utilitarian electronic sign and ARC had to have a costly fancy, bells and whistles electronic sign to impart information undoubtedly reflects the differing priorities of Langley’s council versus Abbotsford’s council and explains why Abbotsford’s taxpayers paid $90+ million for an arena comparable to the arena Langley’s taxpayers paid $15 million for.

Abbotsford’s council needs healthy priorities, an ability to plan for the needs of Abbotsford and avoid problems rather than stumbling from mess to quagmire to disaster. A little financial and personal discipline would be nice and would go a long way to stop council and staff from digging the hole they have dug the city into ever deeper.

If only …