The Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce is taking a cue from the fellow from La Mancha. It is preparing to tilt at all the windmills in the countryside. Or maybe the members of that citified organization have been hypnotized by Professor Joe Garcia.
How and why do not matter. What does matter is that advocates of top-down change in local government structures, although they are frightfully polite about it, continue to believe the leaders of rural communities all have red necks and are insanely jealous guardians of every prerogative they now have. The most obvious defect in the city slickers' argument is its lack of courtesy. The backwoods bosses aren't trying to tell the city bosses how to run their own bailiwicks, so why should city folks be thrusting their sophisticated noses into the domain of the hayseeds?
Actually, any argument which makes courtesy an important element is weaker than one which deals entirely with realities. Unfortunately, most Saskatchewan people, wherever they live, don't know what the realities are. Do larger units of administration operate more cheaply and efficiently? Hardly anybody knows, and the savants who have done the arithmetic aren't telling us.
What rural dwellers have observed in education and health care is that larger units are less responsive and much more expensive. People in the hinterland suspect, with good reason, that these two administrative levels give employment to officials whose only work is to invent more titles and more official positions. This kind of squandering couldn't happen in small rural and urban governments which are always under the watchful eyes of their ratepayers.
Having lost close control of health services and education, rural dwellers expect their local councils to resist any further changes which will limit their freedom to create and initiate programs which will enhance the liveability of their own communities. Change in government structures will come easily when rural dwellers see the need for them.
I live in the only town in a large rural municipality which was created by the amalgamation of two smaller ones in 1968. This was a local initiative. There are now only two local governments, the rural and town councils. Other local initiatives include inter-municipal co-operation in a district recreation board, fire protection services and waste disposal and recycling. There is also a local foundation which fills the gaps in health and senior citizens' services. A heritage park is in advanced stages of development. The next project to be completed will an artificial lake stocked with fish.
So long as we are not hampered by more top-down decision-making, we will continue to find and do new undertakings for making life better in our part of the under-populated rural landscape. We don't want to be puppets dancing from strings pulled by faceless people in faraway places.
