Shame on Vision Vancouver for picking taxpayers’ pockets
Well, with breakfast came the morning news and a new tax on top of the 3.9-percent property tax just announced by Vision Vancouver. This increase, to 4.24 per cent, will fund an important housing initiative, a Vision councillor said.
About two years ago, Vision’s Mayor Gregor Robertson announced the plan to buy the Arbutus line and build a walk-bike route, which cost about $80 million.
We should be grateful. The surtax could have been higher. Council can go into property owners’ pockets and take what they want. Shame on them.
Mike Tropp, Vancouver
Legal pot all about the cash
Almost a year ago, the federal Liberals announced they would decriminalize marijuana.
I asked myself which of the myriad changes and preparations required to bring that about would be the priority.
Would it be the organization of a regulatory framework for the safe and secure distribution of weed? Keeping stoners off our roads? Maybe announcements about how cannabis users would be expected to behave?
Well, the government didn’t disappoint. One of their first agreements was how they would collect and divide up the tax haul.
Goes to show you that for all the hoopla and angst raised over the years about the deadly weed, for our political leaders it has always been about the money.
Michael Quigley, Burnaby
Clinton isn’t truthful
Hillary Clinton is president of her alternate universe.
The late New York Times political columnist William Safire, when writing of the Whitewater investigation, called her “a congenital liar.” She has a longtime habit of lying and she has never been called to account for lying to herself or others.
Clinton blames everyone but herself for her loss in November’s U.S. presidential election. Her disdain for hard-working middle Americans — the “deplorables,” as she called them — was a major factor in that loss.
For the thousands of people who cheered her in Vancouver, I would quote the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
Cherryl Katnich, Maple Ridge
We need ride-sharing service
We desperately need Uber or similar competition to taxis in Vancouver or have changes made to the rules about Vancouver taxis picking up in outlying areas.
My sons live in Delta and while trying to be responsible and not drink and drive have been refused rides by Vancouver cabbies who don’t want to drive out to Delta. With SkyTrain cutting service at 1:15 a.m., how on earth are they to get home safely?
I don’t fault cab drivers for this mess. I fault politicians without the political will to change a broken system. I have to ask how serious Vancouver and the province is in keeping people who have had too much to drink off the roads.
Su Bennett, Vancouver
Pharmacists best for pot
While liquor store employees are very nice people and certainly very knowledgeable when it comes to beer, wine and other liquor products, they are not qualified to dispense cannabis products.
There are many thousands of B.C. residents who are prescribed prescription medications that will most definitely be negatively affected by the consumption of marijuana. A licensed pharmacist is trained and qualified to determine if and when a client wanting to use marijuana could have a negative reaction to their prescribed medications.
Why is the provincial government considering any option other than licensed pharmacists for distribution of cannabis?
Edward Rogers, Vancouver