Editor, The News:
City hall is going to transform itself in the upcoming election, but the same insanity will continue instead of having moral leadership with the voters.
Thank, God, the mayor and a few are leaving. Let’s party.
These spendthrifts have been bleeding us for the past few years with big tax hikes while spending like crazy: new library, decorative round-a-bouts, and fancy crosswalk intersections, new fire vehicles and more, while RCMP police services are continuously substandard.
What is the goal, squeeze out low-middle class or low-income people who cannot afford to live here, while other areas get better services for less taxes?
A senior told me: “politicians – one’s a crook, the other a thief, who do you vote for?”
Like the betraying clowns in Ottawa, city hall spends money like inept yo-yos while stiffing us with $300-plus annual tax increases.
No accusations, why not have a transparent audit for the past five years to see why we are being hosed by the former leadership with high costs of city staff wages.
Fact: Port Coquitlam’s library is 25 years old and far smaller than our new library being built and PoCo’s population is at least 3.5 times larger than ours. That joke decision is about as rational as someone making $25,000 a year buying a $1.5 million home.
Nobody has the brains to slash salaries at city hall, or post those wages, or show the cost of these stylish projects.
I went to the old library, and you could drive a truck through it and hit no one.
What do you think a costly new one will do – bring in a lot of tourism dollars to offset our high taxes? Give me a break.,
I can see a library of this size in New Westminster or Maple Ridge, but not here.
There are many examples of sound barrier walls in B.C. that cost less than the one in Pitt Meadows, but who cares – just like the poor reception me and a neighbor got for reporting 9-1-1 crimes years ago.
Why not subcontract out municipal jobs like watering plants or putting up decorations or cutting grass instead of someone making $20-plus an hour?
Why not do the same with bylaws and others who make hefty wages off our backs.
In hard economic times we should reinvent ourselves, not spend money irresponsibly.
The attitude of city hall parallels the same idiocy in Ottawa in spending insane billions on wild foreign lands with our money and forgiving billions in debts while throwing cash at the military or bailouts for crooks in the financial and auto sectors, at the same time, people here suffer and have to tighten their belts. That is repulsively indefensible.
Fact: voter turnout at all electoral levels is declining. Wonder why?
Politicians give lame promises, stiff you, and govern us with questionable judgment with their bloated wallets.
To those candidates who think it is OK to raise taxes more than $1,000 in three years, your insincerity and arrogance should cost you votes as we need brains behind the wheel.
Freeze taxes and boot out poor leadership.
I recall council claiming it had good relations with the Katzie band, but they only meets once a year. That is shameful.
Little kids know better fiscal restraints and common sense than this council.
Money does not grow on trees.
We need to attract tourism and business, not create an fancy illusions.
We certainly would not manage our homes in such reckless ways.
Fact: most of these costly projects could have been finished with far less cost.
Wake up, voters.
Norman Edwin
Pitt Meadows