Saturday, August 14, 2010

Last night during the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” an idea began to take shape in my mind. Such a radically, simple idea that to me it feels like a revelation.

It revolves around those three words ~ Eat ~ Pray ~ Love. It begins for me with Social Media and how the time that I spend trying to keep up with it has robbed me, and is robbing me of Real Time. Real time to Eat (cook & enjoy), Pray (my time with the Lord through His word, prayer and study) and Love (time spent not only with my husband, but Real Time spent, physically, in person, with my friends and the people in my life).

Today I will begin a journey to try to regain what is missing. My time and intimacy with the Lord – I will do this by going to His Word or to prayer instead of to my computer for the latest status updates.

I will make a list of those people I care enough about to be Facebook friends with or a Twitter follower of – with their phone numbers – and if I get the Social urge with not enough time for an in-person visit I will call someone on my list or send a note.

And it is time to start cooking again. Not just because hockey season is upon us but for Ebb and for me. We deserve to eat and enjoy delicious food daily.

I commit my Pray-Love-Eat journey (that is in the order of my own priorities) to the Lord and pray for His guidance and presence in it. 

That was almost 18 months ago and I really did manage to make some lasting changes, however some of the old habits have crept back in. The whole texting, blogging, facebooking, tweeting thing takes a lot of time away from face to face, eye to eye time with everyone in my physical world. And honestly, it drives me crazy. When I’m with someone who is more interested in their phone than in me, I lose interest in a hurry. And I’m sure that works both ways. I don’t want to be that person. As a society we are gaining technical skills but losing people skills. I don’t want to be that person either. So here I go again…committing to being more engaged WITH people in person not through cyber-space. I’m not quitting Social Media – but I am starting to pay more attention to people. People like you. Give me a call – maybe we could do lunch!

The son of two of my high school friends was killed in Afghanistan less than 2 weeks ago. He was there on a military tour, representing our country when he became the victim in a Suicide Bombing. Byron was 28 years old.

I will not pretend to understand the strategies and tactics of war, or even how a country ends up being war-torn when to me it seems there must be a better way.

Very honestly for many, many years the words “war veteran” conjured up images in my mind of old soldiers. Not young men and women. I know that is a totally wrong image as every soldier begins as a young person. But as a kid living in small town Saskatchewan, a place where the military was far removed, war seemed awfully distant and old. My hometown bears streets named after boys who went to war and never came home. But I had never known those boys, my parents had never even known those boys, so the true significance of that gesture never hit me ~ until many years later. Maybe not until now.

This week as we went to the polls to elect our new Provincial Government the reality of what a privilege we have to vote resonated deeply with me. There are men and women dying every day in the battle for such freedoms as voting, freedoms that we living in comfortable Canada have come to take for granted. So much so that a high percentage of our citizens don’t bother to vote. Some saying “It doesn’t make a difference anyway.” Maybe it doesn’t make a difference if one person votes, but it sure makes a difference if they don’t. And can you imagine what we would do if someone came into our country and threatened to take that vote away from us?

My friend’s son died last week. He was working to help another country as they long to have what we have never been without. Freedom and peace.

May God keep our land glorious and free. And may we never take that glory and freedom so much for granted that we don’t notice when we lose it, or worse when we give it up.

 Even with those “first” days long gone as a student and as a parent, it is still nice to be able to look back on summer and reminisce about those sun soaked Saskatchewan days.

 After an extremely busy Council summer last year with the formation of the Downtown Facility and Field House Board of Directors and all the groundwork and meetings that entailed, this summer has seemed much more low-key. We were able to spend some wonderful time at Lake Diefenbaker family and friends enjoying the lake and all it has to offer. In the middle of those holiday days I had the opportunity to take part in The South Saskatchewan River Basin Showcase Tour hosted by SIPA (Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association). It was a 13 hour tour that began in Saskatoon, headed down to Outlook and then back to the city. The tour was filled with tons of information and several very interesting stops along the way.

 We get so wrapped up in our own City and our own little world that often times we forget that there is a much bigger picture in our province, our nation and our world. The tour initially piqued my interest because of the history of the Lake Diefenbaker and Gardiner Dam project from the 1960’s. However what I learned throughout the day was much more than just a history lesson. The South Saskatchewan River is a vital resource within our province, historically, currently and far into the future. The economic spin offs along the River Basin are amazing and diverse. From the Saskatoon Berry Farm, to Boots Dairy near Outlook, Keg Farms (which grows and exports pinto seed beans and much, much more), to Barrich Farms home of True North Seed Potato Company and even the Canada Saskatchewan Irrigation Diversification Centre in Outlook, the prosperity is evident. These operations employ dozens and dozens of people and create spin-off industry in their respective trading areas.

 The damming of the South Saskatchewan River was talked about as early as 1920, but did not come to complete fruition until over 40 years later. The province went through the Dirty Thirties, all the while the mighty South Saskatchewan River was flowing right through the dry and dusty prairie. I can’t help but wonder if the project had proceeded in the 20’s would the story of the 1930’s have been any different for anyone? We will never know.

 The moral of the story for me is that big dreams take big risks and usually lots of opposition. But that just means they are truly worth pursuing! What do you think John Diefenbaker and James G. Gardiner would think of their namesake projects today? Their dreams were big, but it’s hard to imagine that they could have really envisioned all that would come to be, all that we just take for granted in this province today. About 45% of Saskatchewan’s population receives its drinking water directly or indirectly from Lake Diefenbaker. The lake boasts nearly 800 kilometers of shoreline. And the construction cost for Gardiner and Qu’Appelle River Dams was about $120 million 3 decades ago, today’s price tag would be a whopping $1billion!

 I challenge you this week to think outside of your box…explore something you haven’t explored before. Learn something new, do something different. It will do your mind and your attitude good. It will be like the first day of school all over again…except better because there won’t be a test!

Boo could also jump! His hind legs would spring him as high as a person could hold a treat! Now I can’t remember the last time he jumped like that, he just sort of quit.

Today was that dreaded day…the day we had to say goodbye to our treasured companion. Our dog who has been here for birthday parties, Christmases, graduations, break ups, kids moving out, kids moving in. He has greeted us at the door faithfully and kept watch over us day in and day out. I imagine when he went to sleep each night he wasn’t dreaming about packing his bags and moving to the big city, I imagine he was dreaming about his family, and how happy he was to be loved and safe. We came and we went but Boo was always here – waiting patiently for his turn to have our time.

We are very fortunate that our vet is also our neighbor and has been so gracious as to make house calls for our old friend for a long time now. And today was no different. She came quietly and helped us prepare for a hard decision. We sat on the grass in our backyard with Boo and petted him and held him until it was time. He was able to slip off to eternal sleep, his last memories being of home and of love.

In the big scheme of life I know he was just a dog and this doesn’t compare to the deep pain and sadness other people experience every day. But for today, this was a sad stepping stone of our journey. Tomorrow, well we’ll see about tomorrow.

My family tricked me into adopting Boo. But nobody tricked me into loving him. He did that all on his own.

Goodbye Boo-bear – I love you. And I miss you already.

The following are responses to your concern and our plan to overcome the current situation with limited resources;

Up until recent times Moose Jawhas worked strictly on the pay-as-you-go philosophy that dates back to the 1950’s. The concept is exactly what it says – funding capital expenditures from the current taxes collected and/or from reserves built up from past tax revenues as opposed to debt financing. The pay-as-you-go philosophy works very well for regular capital expenditures, but is difficult when the City is faced with monumental projects such as the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant project, the Waste Water Treatment Plant, and other huge undertakings like the Multiplex. When capital projects need to be done in a relatively short time frame that will not allow for money to be accumulated, debt financing becomes necessary. One might say debt financing becomes a necessary evil. Of course it goes without saying that debt load needs to be monitored, as with our personal debt it can grow to an unmanageable size in the blink of an eye. Our City Administration is tasked with keeping an eagle eye on these levels of Reserves and levels of Debt, and I trust their judgment and expertise when it comes to recommending how and what we should or should not be financing or spending.

The City ofMoose Jawhas a number of Reserve Funds that are quite simply monies set aside and identified for specific purposes or projects, these include things such as equipment purchases or major capital projects like the City Complex Upgrade that is currently underway.

Self-Sustaining Reserves are those funds that are/were established to provide an ongoing revenue stream coming from the interest earned, while maintaining the principal so as to continue to provide funding year after year. The Capital Expenditure Fund is an example of such a reserve.

The interest that the City of Moose Jawreceives each year from its reserves totals just over $4 million and would require a tax increase of 22.38% in order to replace this annual benefit. Not just a drop in the bucket!

The City has many reserves designated for a variety of uses. The list includes The Capital Expenditure Fund which is a self sustaining reserve fund; The Equipment Reserve Fund which provides the money necessary to replace the City’s fleet of equipment, this is a fund that is used on a regular basis to purchase new pieces of equipment as needed (note many communities DO NOT have a system such as this for Equipment replacement.) The General Reserve Fund is the fund that feeds the Operating Budget of the City ofMoose Jaw every year. These funds each have a number of components in them but to keep it simple in this context I will leave it at that. There is also the Flood Prone Property Acquisition Fund, the Waterworks Reserve Fund, the Sanitary Sewer Reserve Fund and others.

Due to the diligence and foresight of former and current day City Councils and Administrations the City ofMoose Jawhas an extensive system of reserves which provides specific funds for specific purposes. The interest earned on these reserves since their establishment in the 1950’s is estimated to be greater than $70,000,000!! This revenue has benefited all of the taxpayers of the city over the years by keeping tax rates down. This is an ongoing and significant benefit to our city, one which we should not and must not take for granted. It is the intent of this Council to, in the very near future adopt a by-law or by-laws which would relate to these long standing fiscal policies and practices. Such by-laws will provide a much more permanent and transparent structure and protocol for the management of these most valuable financial assets.

If you are interested in reading a much more in-depth report on the Reserves of our City please feel free to go to the web: http://www.moosejaw.ca/cityhall/finance/comptroller/pdf/review_of_reserves.pdf

Much of the information in this article came directly from that 16 page report – thank you to the Director of Finance for writing and supplying such an excellent resource document!

What we have inherited from our ancestors is not nearly as important as what we leave as a legacy for the generations to come. May we ALL be good stewards of what wise men and women have put in place for the future of our city.

Often times when we speak of The Moose Jaw Warriors during City Council meetings, we say The Warriors but what we really are referring to is The Warriors business organization not really The Warriors the team. And we forget or neglect that at the heart of that business organization is a team of kids, yes kids, who come to Moose Jaw each and every hockey season to give it all they’ve got.

And this season was no different. These guys came in, some for the first time, and played a pretty great season of hockey. They entertained their fans. They gave back to OUR community (5oo hours in community service this year alone.) And they made the last regular season in the Civic Centre one to remember.

 On Friday, March 18^th the puck dropped for the last regular season game in history in the Crushed Can and it felt as if those guys, the Warriors, were playing with 50 years of history on the line. There was electricity in the air and high energy on the ice. This game didn’t mean anything in regards to the standings, but those guys played like it meant everything to them. And I know that they played that game and many, many other games this season, for us, for Moose Jaw, and for all that we were feeling during this historic year. They, meaning the entire team, played as though all the Crushed Can history behind them and in front of them was theirs. Yet we all know it’s not. The fact of WHL Hockey is that some of those players absolutely will not be here next year to play the first or any game in the new Arena, those being the 3 overage players. And not many of the other guys are actually guaranteed they will either. Hockey is a game of trades and cuts, and these boys know that. But it didn’t matter, they played for Moose Jaw’s hockey heart and destiny was smiling when the game went to a shoot out and the home team won!

 By the time you read this, part of the Warriors 2011 Playoff story will already be written. And of course none of us know what that story will be, but no matter what, the season that was the last season in the Moose Jaw Civic Centre could not have been scripted any better even if it had been written 50 years ago when the building opened. Thank you to all the teams that entertain us so well and make Moose Jaw proud!

 Be a fan and pack the Can!! Go Warriors!

The first piece of likely the largest building project in Moose Jaws history is now up and running (no pun intended!), that being the Field House. Of course it didn’t take three hundred years to get it built, but at times it certainly has felt like a century since the debate began. When the initial project was decided upon many may have felt that this “Soccer Field” was an unnecessary piece of the puzzle. In fact I was told just six weeks before it opened not to be surprised when nobody used it. But there were believers in this building all along and boy were they right in believing! This dream of the Moose Jaw Soccer Association has become a reality that has quickly become the pride and joy of an entire city. Much credit must be given to the folks who decided to include the walking track in its design.

By the end of January, that is after just three months of operation 6489 people have used the track. That includes 2252 people during the 55+ time weekday mornings. It also includes moms pushing strollers, people walking with walkers, runners training for marathons. Little kids strolling with grandparents. Friends walking with friends. New friendships are being formed and old friends are reconnecting. There are people using the track who probably never dreamed they would. And there are others who couldn’t wait until it opened.

The turf is being used more and more each week too! People of all ages are playing soccer, lacrosse, football and even ultimate Frisbee.  Boot Camps have started and more turf sports are in the works. In the evenings the turf is teeming with athletes big and small, while the track is in full swing. 

What I have seen first hand is a community being built and strengthened, in more ways than one. And in ways that absolutely do not have a price tag. Some mornings my schedule allows me to go for a run/walk while all the “55+’s” are there. I love being there then! Their conversations always include things like “Isn’t this the best thing that’s ever happened in Moose Jaw?” Often times I get a high five or two as if I did something to make this great thing happen (I didn’t…but still enjoy the high fives!). People are smiling, laughing, visiting and all the while they are exercising!! Active people are healthy people and healthy people are happier people. It took a community to get the Field House built, and in return the Field House is building a community. Sometimes we get more than we can ask for or imagine, I think we just did.

See you on the track!