There are literally hundreds of other ways to create jobs for people and there is always a nice balance between government employment and private sector employment, that ideal ratio being around 1 to 3.5; in Edmonton that ratio is about 1 to 4 so there is certainly room for a little more bureaucracy at the City Government level -- I would rather see that achieved through increased employment in socially productive sectors -- peace officers (highly trained in what I would call "first encounter" skills); social workers; psychologists, educators; infrastructure maintenance workers (landscapers, clean-up crews, etc.), and community service workers. Edmonton, like most Cities, likes to spend money on Capital-cost structures but less than adequate funds on operational and maintenance cost elements. Edmonton should begin to divest itself of land holdings thereby increasing its tax base and convert some (most) of those earnings to government hires. Out of interest and for comparison purposes only, the ratio in the U.S. of government to Private enterprise employment is about 1 to 6 and the population is generally underserved as compared to Canada (also some of the private sector is funded to a much larger extent than in Canada (healthcare for example).
