Pay property taxes in cash?
»
So, does the city want us to deliver the tax increase in cash and in a brown envelope? Terryll Loffler
St-Laurent
»
How redonkulous is Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s tax increase?! I think each household should put their (average) 3.3 per cent increase in cash in a sock and send it directly to the mayor’s office. Julia Schroeder
Hudson
»
What chutzpah! We are hearing of payoffs, of safes stuffed with corrupt money and yet Mayor Tremblay has the gall to raise taxes. He should do the right thing — and ensure that all the money amassed over the years by illegal means is returned to the city. Doing that, we would not need a tax increase. Then, he should resign. Claire Nudel
»
Laval
g No need to delay fighting corruption
»
Re: “Another hasty move from the PQ” (Macpherson, Oct. 30)
Don Macpherson thinks the government is honourbound to wait for the recommendations of the Charbonneau Commission before it legislates against corruption in the construction industry. He is, in my view, mistaken. As he notes, the commission will not finish its work for another year. Add a minimum of another six months of committee hearings, and you then have a year and a half before government acts. Meanwhile the gangrenous status quo persists.
Without predicting or prejudging the eventual recommendations of the current inquiry, we simply don’t have the luxury of doing nothing while we await its results.
Time is money. The more time goes by, the more money falls into the wrong hands.
Howard M. Greenfield
Montreal Why is staffer aiding his boss’s wife?
»
Re: “Senator’s young wife has plans ‘to be big’ ” (Gazette, Oct. 30)
Can anyone justify to me
how my tax money goes to “(Rod) Zimmer’s Senate assistant … working on a plan for months to launch a local acting and modelling career” for the senator’s wife, Maygan Sensenberger?
Mark Hayvren
Franklin Civility needed on the language front
»
Re: “Bilingualism as hiring need hit by minister” (Business, Oct. 30)
Immigration Minister Minister Diane De Courcy, reflects a sad malaise in the mentality of language extremists and the Parti Québécois.
She says that it is a “malaise” that French-speaking immigrants cannot find jobs because of their lack of English skills. I should not have to rehash the obvious fact that English is essential for business and is a fact of life in Quebec. The PQ will never be able to legislate it away.
The real malaise lies in the fact that the Société des Transports de Montréal and government officials feel the need to keep trumpeting from the tops of the tallest buildings that “employees of the STM are not obliged to speak any other language than French.” Okay! We know that! It is a counter-productive and divisive policy. But that is not the point. The point
that is missed here is that the inflammatory tactics of Premier Pauline Marois and the PQ are empowering small-minded people to express their contempt of “les anglais” and “les autres.”
Instead of rubbing the language policies of the STM in everybody’s faces, why doesn’t the STM start educating their mainly unilingual workers on the virtues of polite public service.
Marcelo Bercovici
Montreal
»
Re: “Language spat turns violent” (Gazette, Oct. 31)
The STM wants more and more people to use public transit. If this type of behaviour is what we have to expect, I cannot imagine anyone being encouraged to use public transport.
How do you expect tourists to use public transit if your employees refuse to assist if questions are asked in English?
Should everyone who use public transit be only French-speaking in order to appease radical workers?
Nelun Seneviratne
Dollard-des-Ormeaux
The other day as I was etting off an STM bus, I turned to the driver and said “Thank you.”
He replied with “passez une bonne journée,” to which I replied “you, too!”
and he responded with “merci!”
No one ended up in a headlock.
I had a good day. I hope he did, too.
Elyse Levasseur
Dollard-des-Ormeaux Saturday Halloween would be a treat
»
Re: “Move Halloween to a Saturday, for the sake of kids and parents” (Letter of the Day, Oct. 31)
Bravo to Marie Rennie. Halloween should be moved to the last Saturday in October.
When my kids were young, every year I would contact my city councillor and suggest this, but without any result.
Ms. Rennie ends her letter by asking “How can we get this done?”
I would suggest contacting the heads of the school boards. If they agree, let them contact the minister of education. This would give Marie Malavoy something sensible to propose in the National Assembly, for a change.
If this were adopted, trick or treating would be so much safer for kids, as there would be fewer cars on the roads on a Saturday night, compared with during the week. Ronald J. Lucas
Pierrefonds