A Mark Twain quote: “The rumour of my demise were greatly exaggerated.”
I like a lot of other people went into self imposed isolation, etc; because of the covid.
In any event I am back and ready to start to raise hell about our treatment of seniors, homeless, and younger people who can no longer afford to live in this city.
I think it would be fair to say that we have leaned over backwards and gave all levels of government plenty of time to solve some of these problems. However, it appears that in spite of the lucrative salaries, great benefits, pension plans, holidays, sick pay, and continuous salary increases, they seem unable to do the job we are paying them for.
The solution for seniors who own a house is the option to discontinue paying taxes, and when they die their estate pays all the taxes due to the government, or have them sell their house and move into an apartment, or senior living residence. Most seniors would prefer to spend their last days at home and then go into a hospice, and the time has come for our city managers and elected officials to start to find ways to make this happen. No more loose-lipped lame excuses. Give us some bang for our bucks.
We Canadians have an inherent right to own our home and choose when, where, and how we will leave this earth. This is a decision made by the individual, their family, and the medical profession. It's the government’s responsibility to create the atmosphere where this can happen in a sane, and professional manner.
We have respectfully requested no more tax increases for over the past 20 years to only be ignored by governments with increases every year with perhaps one or two exceptions.
Citizens and seniors are now openly talking about a tax revolt. In other words, “enough is enough.” We expect the city to find savings in their budgets and avoid anymore increases in taxes. A five per cent per annum decrease in every budget for the next four years would be a good start.
There are many areas where these savings can be found. All it takes is a little initiative by city management. Our managers have a responsibility to reduce costs in every area, every year where possible, however it seems that they are mentally locked into tax increases only. This has to change. We pay huge salaries to get efficient managers to look after our tax dollars. Let’s get started.
I will have a lot more to say on housing, taxes, and the homeless in future articles. Stay tuned.
Whats the point?
The point is the gravy train has pulled into the station and the time has come to start unloading some of the passengers. Have a nice day.
Eric Allen is a Prince George writer.
