Midland Mirror Letter to the Editor

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The following letter was sent to the Editor of the Mirror and Midlandcommunity.ca:

“The recent Money Sense magazine article highlighting unaffordability should be a wake-up call for our local community politicians. However, I expect the primary response will be defensiveness and denial.

Mostly these are good people with good public sector or company pensions, good public sector or private company jobs or professions, with homes, maybe a cottage on the beach or on the islands for the summer and a place in warmer climes for a few weeks or months in the winter. For them, and for me, the local communities are a wonderful and idyllic place to live.

But for a substantial portion of the population living on Old Age Pension, Disability Pensions, working minimum wage or low wage or seasonal jobs in the retail or service industry, unemployed or losing their jobs as in the case of CCL, the Money Sense article of high taxes, high utility rate charges and unaffordability probably got it absolutely right.

As the ‘skunk at the party’, I have recently been questioning Penetanguishene Council on its plans to commit the Town to 56.6 million dollars of new capital spending, 36.6 million of which will have to be paid from taxes and utility rates on existing taxpayers.

Many of these projects are questionable as to need and, in some instances, grossly over-estimated as to cost, but, with the sole exception of Councillor Debbie Levy, the councillors are happy to endorse the career and empire building aspirations of their bureaucrats and the fee aspirations of their consultants.

The Money Sense articles shows that, rather than existing as we now do in two separate realities, we need politicians who are representatives of the whole community, or if more fortunate by circumstance or chance, treat the least fortunate as though it is them, or their own family, and exercise their responsibilities to the community accordingly”.

Ted Phelps
July 2014

 

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