Editor, The News:
I have worked retail in the past and can tell you that senior managers and assistant managers do make a good living wage and have life-time careers.
Other full-time staffers also make a wage well above the minimum, all with medical, dental and pension benefits.
Senior part-time staff also make above minimum wage and junior part-timers do make the minimum wage of $10, and all retail recycles cardboard and plastic.
The positive side of new malls is not only the jobs and wages that are brought into town, but the tax benefit to the community, along with the convenience of shopping locally.
Everyone can appreciate the benefit of taking commuters off the roads, reducing carbon emissions and returning time to families through less commuting.
Now the facts of economics: Maple Ridge has a tax ratio of seven per cent commercial and a 93 per cent residential.
This means you, the residential property owner, pay the lion’s share of taxes.
Chilliwack has a tax ratio of 88 per cent commercial, whereby 12 of the 88 per cent is paid by productive farms, thus leaving residential to pay the remaining 12 per cent.
This means commercial pays the lion’s share of all taxes payable to the city.
I encourage all to take a drive and have a look at a productive and progressive city of Chilliwack as we are the same size, population 75,000.
This proves categorically, commercial and retail development matters to every citizen who needs to work for a living and pay taxes.
We all need jobs to support feed and house our families.
Past and current mayors and councils have failed the citizens of Maple Ridge.
We cannot continue down this non-productive road.
It’s time for a change.
Failure to do so will mean Maple Ridge will be the poor cousin of the Fraser Valley forever.
Jim Bulpit
Maple Ridge