Editor, The News:
I am amazed how quiet the local papers have been about our municipal and school taxes this year.
We just received our 2015 property tax notice in the mail last week and I was appalled to discover that our taxes have gone up over 7.5 per cent over last year.
We have lived in Thornhill/Albion since 2005 and in that time our taxes have increased 53 per cent (since 2007).
What have we received for those tax increases?
A toll bridge to Langley, no shopping in Albion, no second elementary school, no new fire hall (promised for the last six years), no improvements to transit and seemingly constant beautification projects in a “downtown” where few people shop.
I assumed that Mayor Nicole Read and council, elected last fall, might do something about the runaway taxes in Maple Ridge. Boy was I wrong. In 2013, our taxes went up 1.6 per cent; in 2014 up 3.7 per cent, and this year, 7.5 per cent.
Don’t tell me you can’t afford to live in Vancouver.
I can’t afford to live in Maple Ridge!
I am ready for a tax revolution; too bad we don’t have recall rights on municipal politicians.
Ian Strachan
Thornhill/Albion
Maple Ridge