Editor:
Re: Mayor’s council seeks more transit funding (Optimist, Feb. 15)
Where does Coun. Dylan Kruger and the Mayors Council think the funds they are asking senior governments to provide will come from?
Us the taxpayers of course and we are already burdened by high levels of income tax and ever-increasing property taxes.
Not only that, but with both provincial and federal governments already running deficits, plus huge sums of money already needed to dig our health care out of crisis, as well as massive increases in defence spending to get us somewhere close to two percent of GDP, the cupboard is bare.
Rather than constantly asking senior levels of government i.e. the taxpayer, for more money different approaches are required.
Top of the priority list is to reduce immigration levels. Canada cannot handle the proposed levels of immigration. B.C. cannot handle those levels. Yes, we need immigrants, but not at the high level proposed. Furthermore, we need much better control of temporary workers and student visas.
B.C. already has infrastructure deficits in roads, schools, healthcare, transit, and government services and those need fixing.
What Coun. Kruger and the Mayors Council need to be calling for are limits on how many immigrants come into the Metro region. It is past time planners matched their requirements to what taxpayers can afford.
Otherwise, Metro Vancouver will no longer be the desirable place to live it once was.
Roger Emsley
