If you actually want to see how your mayor and councillors earn their keep, you really need to tune into the council meeting where they debate and vote on the rate supported budgets for water and wastewater and solid waste. Yeah, I know. You’ve already tuned out. It is a grind. Not just for those watching but for everyone involved.

The thing is, it’s ultimately where a city lives and breathes. How much we pay for the water coming into our homes and the water and waste that leaves them. It ain’t pretty. It isn’t where political careers are made or flounder. Without it, however, little else matters. There’s no glory here. It’s the nuts and bolts of municipal governance.

How much do you think you should pay to have water to drink, to shower, clean your clothes and dirty dishes, to rid your house of bodily effluents and have your garbage hauled away weekly? A buck? Twenty? Fifty? Take a minute. Do the math. What do you pay to have cable TV and internet access?

We elect our local representatives on grand sounding platforms, respect for the taxpayers and such, but this is what it comes down to. The muck and goo of everyday basics. Nobody can emerge from that seeming majestic or noble. It’s dirty work but somebody’s got to do it.

Yes, ideology sometimes enters into it. This time around was no different. Too much time was spent debating the number of environmental days or if certain businesses should be allowed to ignore particular sewage bylaws. Unless we become more perfect beings, that is unavoidable.

Still, right and left, centre and fringe, had to wade through the minutiae and ingloriousness of how much we pay to flush our toilets and to have our garbage picked up and disposed of. We all should take a moment and give a tip of the hat to those we spend much of our time disparaging and denigrating. It’s a thankless task and, having spent nearly 8 hours watching it all unfold, not one you could pay me enough money to undertake.

— impressedly submitted by Cityslikr