Time for Niagara Region to start cutting costs

RE: NIAGARA REGION’S 2020 BUDGET BATTLE WILL BE DIFFICULT, JULY 2

This new Niagara Region council needs to get serious and start working for the taxpayers.

Several polls, national and provincial, show the dismal financial situation many families are in. Large debt levels, living from paycheque to paycheque and unsustainable tax levels.

With the looming massive spending spree this council is planning, it is essential that less important services are cut.

A very large group of Niagara residents is struggling as it is.

Start by skipping the pay increase for councillors. Cancel the switch from the Consumer Price Index to another model when assessing increases for regional employees, which will also cause tax increases in 2020 for residents.

This progressive attitude that former Liberal Ontario premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, along with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, have displayed of spending and taxing us into misery has been financially devastating for many Canadians.

Start cutting services which don’t impact family members’ daily lives.

It’s the same scenario we see with Niagara’s 12 municipalities, where many spend millions of dollars on large luxurious community centres and, what’s more, against the will of the majority of their residents, who are ignored but get stuck with large tax increases.

It is this false and irresponsible narrative that it is OK to go into debt, squandering our good credit ratings resulting in higher interest and tax rates, which hurts.

Governments must stop this destructive, inexcusable behaviour. Rob Jannsen Lincoln