LAC STE. ANNE COUNTY A YEAR IN REVIEW #4
This the 4th segment in LSARA’s Year in Review. We told you with Review #3 that we had some information that was sent to us that would or most certainly SHOULD make everyone stand up and take notice.
Had LSARA responded, we would have asked how is it possible to have any semblance of a Budget when you clearly don’t know what you borrowed, you don’t know the interest rate and use a zero for what is outstanding? Some of these terms have just begun as late as last year, 2018. Do you think maybe that on both charts we borrowed for roads as we used our MSI funding in one fell swoop for 5 years on the Administration Building? There is also no mention of bridge repairs in this “budget” which we know had to take place as they have not been maintained and one was damaged by improper use of explosives attempting to clear a Beaver Dam. What is wrong with taking the dam down by hand like the old-style Beaver control used to do?
Had LSARA responded, we would have once again asked several questions. How can you not know when you borrowed money? How is that you borrow money WITHOUT KNOWING what the interest rate is? How is it that a financial reconciliation is provided to the Ratepayers of Lac Ste Anne County without ANY totals outstanding? Is this the fiscal responsibility that we should all expect from our Administration and our Council? Does the cost for the New Administration Office reflect the actual cost of the building, the furniture, the utilities etc.? It most certainly does not!!!!! Does it adequately reflect what the Administration building has and will continue to cost you, the Ratepayer in legal fees as the building is subpar and has documented structural issues? Does it adequately reflect that the only protection we had as a Ratepayer was a million dollar hold back that was released? To remove a caveat? Because the contractor was going to SUE? Why haven’t we sued the CONTRACTOR along with the Management group that was supposed to take care of our interest that we paid a million dollars to in order to oversee the Project?
Question # 8 – Current long-term
borrowing – how much was the total amount borrowed in the last 5 years and how
much is outstanding? What was the money
borrowed for? What are the terms and
interest rate?
LSAC Response is this exact table.
QUESTION #9 – Short term borrowing –
how much was the total amount borrowed in the last 5 years and how much is
outstanding? What was the money borrowed
for? What are the terms and the interest
rate?
LSAC Response is this exact table.
Your comments and
concerns are valued. Your membership is very important to us. We look forward
to greeting you all at our Annual General Meeting March 31st at the GUNN Hall
from 2-4 pm. Stay tuned for Post #5 in the series.
I have followed for over the last year and have seen the incredible amount of energy you guys have put into caring about our communities and our legacy, thank you for that. It's very tiring to get people to care these days, but you guys seem to get a bit of traction. We stood up to the last council and we were promised this time it would be different...it's not looking that way. I read the last article on financing and my biggest alarm is debt servicing. Common sense tells me that to make money, you get of bad debt...we have a lot. First order of business is zeroing out the higher interest loans...we are still carrying healthy balance both long term and short term. I am willing to bet with some debt consolidation we would get better overall rates and save money there too. Can we ask them about who is responsible for the debt management and what their plan is to mitigate it?
ReplyDeleteAt some point, we will have exhausted our avenues and possibly nothing has changed, what then? Are we able to hold a referendum on splitting the county? Is this something we could table now? If so, how do we go about it?
Also, I have heard rumblings of collusion, bid rigging, and accepting bribes. How can we have that investigated? If proven true, what then?
Thank you,
Justin Yeoman