FISCAL AUSTERITY A LITTLE ……WELL, VERY, VERY LATE

No matter how many times you read or hear about Canada's ability to weather financial storms, we have to endure one big enough and closer than the past recession, to test whether it is rhetoric or fact…….that we are in better shape to handle severe global downturns. I'm pretty sure, this national, and provincial claim of fiscal stability, gives some credibility to the argument our regional and town levels of government are just as rock solid as our federal and provincial partners. Maybe councillors can sleep well at night, on the realities of a huge debt-load, while most of us toss and turn about our own risk management and eventual retirement.

I grew up in a family, as did my wife Suzanne, where frugality and home economics were every day realities. It doesn't mean we were poor but it does mean our respective moms and pops had a keen sense for making ends meet, and using and re-using. Buying a new car? It was a peak of every decade. We went with clunkers for most of my childhood. I spent a lot of time pushing those same cars, so my dad could jump-start the engines. I think we were pretty average frankly, and Suzanne and I both knew what it was like to have a limited clothing budget. As for food, well, our families were talented in this department, and having lived through the Great Depression and the War Years, they had the capability of hunkering down with modest proportion, and stretching a food supply to an almost astonishing degree. We'd have a roast beef on Sunday, and be eating it in various forms until it was down to its last morsel by Wednesday or Thursday. Any leftovers after this went into the soup pot where, at the very least, the remnants would flavor the vegetables. That was our "Everything Stew," like the hobos in their jungle, down by the train station, used to cook up over an open fire. Anything that was left over, or could be reasonably added to a stew, except cereal, got tossed in for substance. I loved it. Suzanne will still make these same soups, not because we're broke, but because we both know a few basic survival skills, as passed down by true culinary experts.

The problems that arise from this latest economic calamity, is that many young folks, thousands upon thousands with huge financial obligations, and family responsibilities, have no idea how to be frugal. Many have spent so much money they didn't have, having buried themselves in credit card and rent/mortgage debt, when times were good, that they now have this huge bank of negative financial potential rolling over the horizon……headed right for them. And they have no place to hide. No way of getting out from under the debt-load without taking huge losses. And they don't know how to make an "Everything Stew," and if doesn't come in a microwave package, they don't know how to cook. They were never taught. The old Home Economics courses at high school, which became Family Studies, isn't helping prepare young folks for household realities, good and bad……so spending the little cash they have on a bag of potatoes, carrots or beets, isn't all that appealing if it involves any preparation, more than opening a door and punching a few buttons on a microwave.

I've always thought some of our councillors should take refresher home economics courses, so they could better understand what many of their constituents are facing day to day. If I boldly stated this to councillors up close and personal, undoubtedly many would be deeply offended, that a critic like me, would suggest they don't know how to make a "Hobo Stew." My point for suggesting an upgrade, is for them to truly appreciate that many of their constituents are of the most vulnerable, and that the food bank is necessary in our struggling community. Possibly, being a little insulted by my suggestions that they are woefully disconnected to household fragilities, in this town, and then huffing and puffing about Mr. Currie being "out of order……out of order….ridiculous, scandalous…..how dare you suggest we are of the ill-informed,"……….just maybe amidst their foot stomping and chair-leg kicking, one or two of these same town representatives might have a wee pinch of insight, that maybe, just maybe, they have lost touch with the true economic woes of the hometown.

Whether our council representatives feel insulted by my suggestion, that they are disconnected from the economic truths of their constituents, or angry about being told they need to upgrade their home economics skills, the economic perils facing them, not only on a local and regional level, but from the shock wave of fear and loathing coming from the global crisis, will either force our leadership to quit, or learn quickly new ways of economizing and recovering from record debt-loads. What our new town council, must have learned over the past year, is that being a big mucky-muck isn't all its cracked up to be, especially when you've blindly……and I mean blindly, assumed another council's unbelievable bungling. So if the global melt-down and defaults do pass this way, which I think is a good bet, we'll see what fiscal consequence is all about. Gravenhurst and our District are facing a debt-load crisis at about the worst time possible…..yet many of us have been warning about over-spending for more than a decade. Of course, we were "fear mongers" then, and we're fear mongers now. Sometimes fear mongers do hit the nail on the head.

As we have experienced in Gravenhurst for some time, there is a lack of confidence we can change our future with a few grants, curiously vague initiatives, and grandiose projects, that always seem to miss the mark, at least as far as inspiring citizens that all is well. Despite claims of positive action, and re-action to crisis, there has been a flogging of community pride and spirit for twenty of the past twenty years. To this point, most of us realize it will take a behemoth change in direction, and an immense wave of good fortune (some made, some found) to find our future as exciting and alluring as it should and could be with the right leadership. We are not seeing this at present. What we are seeing is the same superfluous attempts to pull a genie out of the bottle, chasing after nothing more than bandaid solutions to all that ails us. Like trying to stop a tsunami with a pail and scoop, it's about the least sensible thing, at present, to look at stimulating the main street business community, when a large component of the BIA zone buildings are up for sale……or are missing the result of failures, re-locations and past fires. The community at large is the main concern, and the stresses of the coming downturn on town services and ratepayers……some who haven't been able to pay their taxes comfortably for years. The elitist attitude I sense from council generally, is one that is about to come crashing down to earth, and it will have everything to do with a lack of insight about just how bad it is here now…….before the coming economic storm claims its first business or industry in our town. If a councillor, or two, should appreciate that the Bard of Segwun Boulevard makes some sense in his prognostications about the future, then possibly they will be the leaders in dialogue, to convince our local government that thin ice, and its precarious nature, will be a reality of business for the coming decade……and that they should all appreciate that some of us have been eating Poverty Stew (Everything Stew) for quite a while now, watching from the sidelines as our tax dollars are spent in stomach-churning excess all over the place.

Our Town has survived many, many downturns. And it will survive this one. Not well, or without casualties, having little financial room to spare. But it will take its toll on those who believe the fictions they perpetuate, in a government they see as all-powerful and resilient to change, no matter how inevitable. Nothing could sink the Titanic. Historians and visionaries know just how tough it will be…..especially those who prop themselves up on propaganda because it seems the most positive thing to spin these day. If our leadership in Muskoka and Gravenhurst doesn't respond to the impending fiscal crisis, which will erode their tax base without doubt, they are simply stated, "damned fools."

It may not seem like an emergency but it is! We are in bad shape to weather this storm. Many citizens are in financial peril. Many businesses are just keeping their heads above water. Investors are becoming fewer and fewer. Losses are getting bigger and bigger.

Fear mongering? Call it that if you wish. A few of us know it better, and more sensibly, as an honest plea for reaction, and a bid for safe passage for our vulnerable citizenry, who are already mired with personal hardships. What we do know is that the client list at the local food banks, will be hale and hardy for another few years. Will there be enough donations to meet demand? Council, as our leadership, needs to know what's going on in the real world…..the one that exists beyond the council chamber. As I've stated before, they absolutely need to know how important the local food bank is to the welfare of many of our families. As I've discovered, council isn't all that interested in unpleasant realities.