Voters upset with Metro pay hikes will soon get their say
There is one person in the Metro Vancouver pay-raise fiasco to note for Vancouverites, with an election coming soon. Vancouver Coun. Raymond Louie, vice-chairman of Metro board, defended the scandalous pay raise and “retirement allowance” that the board will soon vote to reverse after a public backlash.
Louie also went on a junket recently to Australia, paid for by taxpayers. This is the same person who at the last minute of a Vancouver council vote on property taxes raised the taxes by an additional half per cent.
The Metro directors’ claim that they need the raise to attract quality people is ridiculous, but it does imply that they think very highly of themselves. Hugh Shirreff, Vancouver
Politicians need decent pay
Letter-writer Brian Wormald’s suggestion that municipal politicians should not be entitled to proper recompense and run for office solely based on passion and commitment is ridiculous. To then state that our “leadership doesn’t lead” is also misleading.
How does business attract and recruit the brightest and the best? With lucrative pay and benefits. To expect our leaders to do the job without equal benefits is asinine. Robert Peebles, White Rock
NDP tax is expropriation
I am 86 years old and live in a house that will be hit with the provincial government’s punitive new “school” tax. I think that this tax on wealth is not only unjust but is a type of planned expropriation, not unlike what was done in communist-ruled countries from which I was lucky to escape.
Is that the NDP’s intention?
The West Point Grey Residents Association has sent Premier John Horgan a letter that I support 100 per cent. I hope he reads it. Henry Von Tiesenhausen, Vancouver
Catch him, don’t warn women
I was disappointed to read that the Langley RCMP are warning women to be aware when taking out the trash after a woman was grabbed while doing so and dragged into her home where she was sexually assaulted.
Women are already very aware of their surroundings when we take out the trash. We need the media to put pressure on the RCMP to put out a composite drawing and physical description of the attacker and issue a warning to the attacker that they are aggressively policing, with more patrols on the street, and that they will find him, so he better turn himself in.
Louisa Russell, Vancouver
Drive safely and live
I was very happy to see the letter from Mike Runte because I am also a retired police traffic specialist. I spent 38 years enforcing B.C.’s traffic laws and attended too many collisions, all caused by human error.
People cry foul when ICBC wants to raise rates, but do they pay attention to the dangerous actions of drivers? They refuse to signal lane changes or turns, drive at speeds far above their abilities, while others drive like they are in a bubble, oblivious to others.
There is an epidemic of following too close, speeding through traffic lights and not stopping before turning right at intersections. If truth be known, ICBC is probably not charging enough given the mayhem.
People, you are not in a bubble. You have a responsibility to yourself, your family and others using the roads to drive safely. Slow down and pay attention. Your life and the lives of others depend on it. Walter Leech, Coquitlam
Hah! Editors with wit?
Is it possible that Province editors have a sense of humour?
Directly under the story “B.C. government says safeguards coming for trailer park residents” on Page 10 of Wednesday’s paper was an ad for an appearance that night by the Trailer Park Boys — Ricky, Julian, Bubbles and Randy — at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Gerald Baskett, Coquitlam