The issue is

Within the "twitter world", the debates and comments regarding the Edmonton City Center Airport (hash tag #ecca) are going back and forth. This blog post is not about if you are FOR or AGAINST closing this facility, it IS about the honesty of the process used.

The real bottom line here is... have our elected officials been honest with you.

Anyone who attended the "public hearings" held could clearly see that City Council was leaning towards closure.  Many of the experts in the aviation and medical areas gave multi reasons why it would be bad, but it didn't seem to matter.  When you look at the media report from the National Post that exposed some of the "behind the doors" activities, especially the influence from the Board of the Edmonton Regional Airport Authority...

There are a lot of things that happen behind closed doors within all areas of Government that the public is not aware of, and the politicians make sure that you don't hear about them.  And this is simply wrong.  But they all use the technicalities of the laws, many of which have been designed or re-worded specifically to keep you out of "the knowledge" so they can hide behind them and honestly say to you "sorry, we can't discuss that".

Remember when the Chief of Police was fired?  The details of that were not released (oh it's a private issue right) and the person tossed from this position filed a law suit.  Which you also never heard anything about.  But down the road, some details were leaked which suggested that the matter was settled out of court for a sum that was suggested to be between $250,000 and $500,000.  And if you watched news stories on from the local TV stations, you would occasionally catch a glimpse of this person who was fired.  Why?  Well, the City hired him as some type of "consultant".  Citizens of Edmonton should be thrilled that their taxpayer dollars were used to settle this law suit, and they should be thrilled that he was re-hired (as a consultant for what, and at what wage?) but of course, the figures can't or won't be released due to "privacy" or "legal" reasons.

Don Iveson, whom I have a lot of respect for, has stated in a response letter (read it here) that "we were acting on the basis of advice from the Airport Authority".  Drawn your own conclusions, knowing that there appeared to be back door activities (referencing the National Post article).

The real question here for 'the people' should be... Am I willing to let (what appears to be) this type of dishonesty of process continue?

There is real truth behind the expression "Ignorance Is Bliss".  Think about it when you vote, and stand up for and start demanding honesty and integrity within our elected representatives at all levels of government.