Dear Editor,
We should not, in good conscience, support any of the incumbents for Mayor or Council in the upcoming election. It is important to recall that this Council, shortly after the 2014 election and without any discussion during the election campaign, saddled taxpayers with a whopping six percent increase in municipal taxes. In addition municipal taxes have increased every year since then.
It was very disturbing as well that Council had to rely on the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mr. Carré to defend their own decision of such a large increase. I recall Mr. Carré’s comment at the time that, “the only alternative to increasing taxes is to borrow more money”. Such a statement by a public servant is irresponsible, but, what is even more outrageous, is that Council did not require a retraction. We can only conclude that the current Council supports such a ridiculous position.
In fact, a review of seven years of budget data confirms the flagrant spending of our tax dollars. Our municipal government has run deficits in all but one of those years and the data did not include servicing the municipality’s debt.
Of course, now that they are up for re-election they are singing a somewhat more responsible tune. Sorry, you had your chance. It is time to move on.
Victor Jarjour
