10 Things You Should Know Before You Go to Social Media to Complain About Your Community

Complaining about Council, public works staff, and all the things you think your community should be doing on social media is, in my humble opinion, getting a little out of hand. Before you decide to take your beef to social media, pretty please consider the following:

1. The people in charge for now are your friends and neighbours. They have no better idea about getting things done than you do. They need time and support to learn the rules, and most came on board without any idea there are rules.

2. Administrators in small population communities are often the brunt of every decision the Council makes. They are the messenger. We are not supposed to shoot the messenger. We are not supposed to yell at them, and we are not supposed to say mean things about them on social media.

3. The federal and provincial governments subsidize our communities through provincial and federal funding and grants. Our population invests in us through countless volunteer hours. You most likely do not pay enough taxes and utility fees to pay for your current level of service.

4. Many of our municipal governments inherited multiple expensive problems due to the impact of short-term decision-making by some or all previous councils. Keeping utility rates lower than the service cost leaves many communities today without sufficient funding to fix their existing infrastructure. Once the water and sewer go, it can be challenging to maintain the community.

5. Municipalities are governed by legislation, meaning they cannot do many things people expect of them. Before you go to social media to complain about what they are not doing, go to a meeting and find out why.

6. Today's decisions may not have a significant impact for a decade or more. That means that the people on Council today are not around to experience the effects of their decision when it comes. The ones in the seats when a significant infrastructure fails bear that burden.

7. Community engagement is critical to long-term sustainability. Not only do people have to care about their community, but they also have to act as they do, which means getting involved. So many complaints I see show that their belief is out of line with the truth.

8. We all see you and what you write. It is a mystery that people will complain about their community on social media where everyone can see them but won't send a letter with their name on it to Council? Nothing should get solved due to a testy message on social media.

9. As a taxpayer, you get a vote. You do not get to yell at town employees. You also do not get to call them names in writing on a public page.

10. Change is fundamental to sustainability. Progressive leadership is necessary for sustainability. We must look at ways to create revenue within our communities if we are ever self-sufficient.

It is important to complain to your community leaders. Corruption, conflict of interest and other issues happen all of the time, and community leaders are accountable by the nature of their position. However, using social media to bully your leadership does not work and makes the writer look bad.

5 Things You Might Have Heard About Small Towns That Are Dirty Rumors...Mostly :)

1. There is nothing to do.

Well, if you come from a large center and you are fond of the big city nightlife, and recreational shopping in 20 different malls, you are right, you won't find that here. That is precisely why I prefer small-town living. But don't underestimate the entertainment value of street dancing to a live band, house concerts in someone's back yard, or hanging out with friends playing a game where you throw the bean bags into holes. I don't sell it well, but that was so much fun. We just had an event here this past weekend, that had so much to do, I couldn't actually get to it all. There have been events all over the place, all summer long. Pandemic kicked the heck out of the usual list of things to do, and that happened everywhere. It may not be what you are used to doing, but there are tons of things to do, once you lean into the community.

2. We are all hicks and/or rednecks.

Nope. We are not. A very nice couple, whose names I did not get, attracted by my gorgeous puppy, and lack of available seating room sat down at our table during a recent event. Making conversation, one part of the couple asked me the significance of the ring I wear on my right hand. It is my MBA ring, I said. In what, they asked? Community Economic Development I said, from the University of Cape Breton. They looked shocked. And they said, "you don't think that towns this size have people with education." I laughed, and I said, there are a LOT of people who are formally educated in small towns. There are lots who are not formally educated but are smart, very smart, about how to make money and run a decent business. There are rogues and thieves, but heck we know who they are and we can avoid them. The mister insists I'm a redneck because I am an excellent duck plucker. I admit I'm proud to be both. More than one thing can be true at once.

3. There are no jobs.

Well, that can be true if you are looking for someone else to employ you. But if you are self-employed, or capable of becoming self-employed, small-town living may just be an answer to a prayer. Typically, small towns offer a lower cost of living, and if you can adjust to limited take-out options, and lean into the wonderful things about living out of the City limits, you could make a fine living here.

4. There is no public transportation.

Again, that is a matter of definition. If you define a small town as anything under 50,000, that could be an issue. Here in southeast Saskatchewan, many of our communities are closer to 1,000-1500 people, many much smaller. If you can walk, you don't need public transportation, you can walk everywhere in 5 minutes. Unless I am leaving town, I typically don't even start my car, and I pay less for gas than some of my city friends pay monthly for parking.

5. Everyone knows your business.

Ah, that's not so bad. Social media means that you cannot blame that on the neighbours anymore. The people on the other side of the world know your business now. The upside is that when it happens in a small town, the people are happy to help. We tend to look out for each other.

How do we get people back to work post-pandemic?

I did not do any particular research, so I cannot prove it, but I am hearing that businesses are having a hard time getting people to come back to work. I am hearing that the reason people are reluctant, is that they do not want to give up the payments the government is providing to them to get through the pandemic. The implication is, sometimes, that people became lazy while living off the government aka 'us', the taxpayers, and that nobody wants to work anymore.

Please consider this. If you make minimum wage in Saskatchewan, then the government benefits are going to let you take home 25% more than you can earn working 40 hours. Sure the government may nail you at tax time, but from a cashflow perspective, those benefits coupled with additional savings on non-mandatory related employment costs, like day care and transportation. That means that staying home may very well be a way of making those ends meet. If you've ever tried to raise a small family with just one adult working for minimum wage you know what I mean. I've been there.

The big surprise is that anyone is willing to work for minimum wage at all. Nobody lives well on minimum wage.Certain jobs do not require any particular skill, but that is still work that needs to be done and should have a value to it. A minimum wage job should pay enough that the person can pay for their basices.

But what do we do? Businesses say that if they had to pay above minimum wage, they would go under. The jobs they do provide, even if they were low paying, go with them. The government legislates it, but the coin comes out of the business pocket whenever the leadership says people deserve a higher minimum wage. Isn't minimum wage better than no wage at all? To some, no, it isn't.

If you are on an assistance program, and if you have prescriptions, or medical needs you can often get those expenses covered which is not the case if you are employed. When one of the adults in the house gets a minimum wage job, those expenses come back, and those expenses are not prorated based on income. Maybe they should be. I am certain there are solutions, let's discuss and come up with a few. For me, I can only influence my own behavior.