In the last year, it seems that there have been regular announcements from city hall about financial losses in one operation or the other, but I have yet to see much concern on the part of our city councillors.

Instead, all I am hearing are the plans to raise more money through increased fees and levies. The situation makes me think of a patient who is bleeding to death and the doctors are figuring out how to run another intravenous line, but nobody is trying to staunch the wound.

This trend seems to have started with the Urbacon lawsuits that cost close to $10 million, but we were told not to worry because reserve funds would cover the bill and our taxes would not be affected. Of course, since then we have learned the truth. “Oh well!”

It is public knowledge that the Sleeman Centre and River Run Centre combined lose three-quarters of a million dollars annually. “Ho hum!”

In March, city hall reported that its recycling centre had lost $2.6 million in 2015. It seems that city council wanted to copy what was happening in other cities, but had not stopped dreaming long enough to create a business plan that would have revealed the need for suppliers before you build the production facility. “What, me worry?”

More recently, we have learned that $8.7 million has been written off and written down on investments in our district energy networks.

It seems that city council wanted to copy what was happening in other cities, but had not stopped dreaming long enough to create a business plan that would have revealed the need for customers before you build the production facility. That sounds like some pretty serious coin to me, but all we seem to hear from council is “Gee whiz!”

Oh, did that last paragraph sound like a repeat of the one before it? “Don’t worry about it; the voters will forget by the time the next election comes around!”

This month, we heard that annual overtime costs at city hall are on the rise and added up to $3.4 million in 2015 — $3.4 million is such a low figure that council can easily ignore it. Instead of hearing any concern, all we seem to hear is “Oops!”

Earlier this month, council reviewed the facts: since 2008, our city’s population has grown by seven per cent. Our city’s operating budget has increased by 40 per cent! The cost to run the city has outgrown the population increase by 600 per cent! Any councillor should be able to understand and be concerned by those figures. “Yawn.”