Tired of unaccountable politicians?

Then you might want to try a new tool the Canadian Taxpayers Federation came up with to help voters during the municipal election. The tool is called a “voter’s contract” and it’s really easy to use.

First, you visit www.VotersContract.ca and print off a one page, large print “contract.”

Don’t worry, it’s not one of those contracts with loads of fine print; this document is very straightforward, has large print on purpose and will take you about a minute to read.

The idea is that taxpayers can put the contract in front of a candidate knocking on their door and ask them to consider committing to, in writing, several different options if they’re elected. If the politician gets elected and doesn’t follow through on their promises, they agree to accept a 25% pay cut.

But just like ordering off a menu, candidates don’t have to agree to each one, they only need to commit to the options they like.

For voters province-wide, there are three options candidates can consider.

The first one is a no brainer. It requires elected officials to put their expenses on their municipality’s web site or make them available at the local council office for the public to view. If a candidate won’t sign this straight forward option then you may as well stop right there. After all, who wants to elect a politician that supports hiding expenses?

Next up, candidates can agree to not increase property taxes higher than the rate of inflation. This will help pressure politicians and administration to keep spending under control and focus on ways to reduce wasteful expenditures rather than simply asking taxpayers for more money.

As many people working outside government see pay increases around the rate of inflation, this measure will help ensure any property tax increases are affordable.

The third option is to put new employee hires into a defined-contribution pension plan. In plain English, some people who work for municipal governments currently have what’s known as a defined-benefit pension plan. Typically these plans are very costly as they guarantee employees a defined payout for the rest of their lives, regardless of how long they live or the amount in the pension fund.

Thus, when the pension funds are short, taxpayers inevitably have to put even more money to cover the shortfall. A defined-contribution plan is much less expensive and risky for taxpayers.

For those in Regina, there are two additional options candidates can consider.

The first indicates they would support a referendum prior to moving ahead with the new stadium. This would ensure taxpayers finally have some say in the massive luxury project; one that politicians rammed through council.

The second option would be to discontinue the practice of requiring citizens to hand in their speaking points prior to making a presentation at a council meeting. Incredibly, if a citizen strays from their speaking points, Regina’s council will sometimes boot them from the chamber. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation isn’t aware of any other large cities in Canada with such a USSR-like rule.

Once you get a candidate to sign a contract, send it back to us and we’ll post them on the www.VotersContract.ca web site. We have already have a few candidate responses posted. Will your candidate be the next?