Editor, The News:
Re: $195,000 for social planners in Ridge (The News, Feb. 22).
Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole Read doesn’t seem to have a problem spending our tax dollars on a fight to end what she calls a solution to end the homeless situation in Maple Ridge.
I can sympathize with the people who are actually homeless and are in a difficult position.
What I find hard to tolerate is her failure to differentiate between the homeless and the drug addicts.
When you are spending hundreds of thousands of our money on low-barrier shelters and allowing the residents to come and go as they please, to allow them to continue their drug habits, this will not help solve the problem in any way.
There is no incentive for the addicts to try to change their lifestyles.
Now you are going to spend another $195,000 on social planners to try and alleviate the situation.
Mayor Read, your bleeding heart has done nothing to effectively deal with this ongoing problem.
It seems that you have made it your goal to personally adopt this problem and lavishly spend our dollars on what actually falls under provincial jurisdiction.
Now you’re fearful that another camp will be formed by the addicts.
There is the former correctional institute in Maple Ridge that is now vacant.
The provincial government should re-open the centre and house the addicts there and put them into a program to overcome their addiction. Otherwise, this situation will continue to grow.
As long as the low-barrier approach continues, we will keep attracting more addicts to our community.
Perhaps you could put a little effort into trying to convince our provincial MLAs to make a genuine, concerted effort to deal with this ongoing problem.
Al Uglanica
Maple Ridge