Millions of Calgarians' tax dollars are being spent on a public relations project which could well lead to another round of property tax increases. City Hall has spent your money to establish a web site asking vague questions like "What's it like for you to live in Calgary?" The answers are supposed to be "innovative" and lead to a "vision" for a "sustainable future," claims www.imaginecalgary.ca. It makes you wonder why we have Aldermen, and why Aldermen bothered to set out their visions and policies in last year's municipal election.

There is no harm in people exchanging views and visions. In fact, it's a good thing, and people do it everyday in their homes, in their work places, through internet and e-mail, and by communicating with their elected representatives. Further, people are free to join community, cultural, political, religious, sports, academic and charitable groups in order to express themselves and promote a vision for the common good. But why spend millions on compiling a new wish list that will, inevitably, be translated into a "demand" for government to take on more responsibilities and expand its sphere of control and influence?

There is no need to spend $2.3 million to find out what people want. No web sites or surveys or highly-paid communications consultants are required to tell us that people want a high standard of living; personal and family happiness; economic prosperity; a clean environment; good health; effective transportation infrastructure; excellent education; safe streets and communities; a fair and effective justice system, etc. Everyone wants a good life today, and an even better life for future generations.

The real question isn't what people want. Rather, the question is how these goals are best achieved and attained.

That's where government-funded surveys often fall short. The underlying assumption of most government surveys is that government can and should solve all of our problems.

Last year's province-wide survey is a prime example. This mail-in survey asked Albertans whether they value "quality health care" and "excellent education" (who doesn't?) but provided only one way to reach those goals: throwing more tax dollars at the health and education systems. Other means to better health care and education (eg. empowering patients and parents with real accountability through choice and competition) were not mentioned. Predictably, when introducing another bloated provincial budget this past April, Tory MLAs claimed that the huge spending increase is what Albertans want, based on this biased survey. And so Alberta's spending on government programs has increased 100% in just nine years, from $12.7 billion in 1996 to $25.5 billion in 2005. Province-wide surveys which asked Albertans to choose between tax cuts and spending increases (we said we prefer the former) have been ignored.

City Hall's "imagineCalgary" project is about "creating a road map to ensure a prosperous economy, clean environment and quality of life," claims Jennifer Allford, a communications consultant who is paid by Calgarians to sell the project to Calgarians. Whether government helps - or actually hinders - our quest for economic prosperity, a high quality of life, and other goals, is open to debate. But that's not a debate which "imagineCalgary" will host.

Visions and imagination tend to get awfully expensive when nameless, faceless taxpayers are paying for their implementation. Many people suffer from the Santa Claus illusion: that government has an unlimited supply of "free" money to fund someone's latest wish list. This fall, thousands of answers to vague questions will be "synthesized" (by whom?), and Ms. Allford assures us that this is "a very democratic process." But asking people to come up with more wish lists leads to more pressure on government to create more projects and programs, which leads to more tax increases.

People want happiness, health and prosperity. Rather than creating new wish lists through projects like imagineCalgary, citizens should ponder and debate the proper role of government. In light of the fact that no one spends someone else's money as wisely as he spends his own, Calgarians would be better off to develop their own visions for their own lives, families and communities, rather than expanding the powers of City Hall.

Taxpayer-funded "vision projects" are a poor substitute for asking citizens specific questions about specific issues and policies. On June 20, I sent an e-mail to Ms. Allford asking how much imagineCalgary would cost, and how much money she is receiving from taxpayers to promote this project. There has been no response to my questions thus far. The absence of a response to these simple questions confirms that imagineCalgary is bad news for taxpayers, who should contact their Aldermen and request that this $2.3 million project be scrapped.