HOW CAN WE TIGHTEN BELTS?

CBC Compass, Friday May 6, broadcast Finance Minister Darlene Compton's response to how the rising cost of living is affecting the people of P.E.I. (the people she says she represents) and to hear the words “you just have to tighten your belt” is in my opinion very disrespectful.

I took the time to look into a few things, finding the salary of the Minister of Finance for P.E.I. is $126,321 a year. You are supplied a government car and a credit card for expenses (gas, food, etc.), and that's just your salary. You and your husband also have numerous companies and are involved in harness racing ... lucky you.

I'm interested in how someone with your personal resources would explain to a family earning minimum wage just how they might tighten their belts a little more, or maybe the single parent with a child or children who is barely able to keep a roof over their heads, or the seniors who are trying to live on their OAS and are trying to decide if they eat or buy their medications.

Just how do you tighten your belt when it's already on its last notch? Maybe they should swallow their last bit of pride and go line up at the already overstretched food banks, cancel their child's birthday, cancel the TV, their one source of entertainment, skip a meal here and there, maybe only take your medication every other day?

What would you suggest? Seems odd to me that you would expect us to tighten our belts when not too long ago you were questioned about a $500 trailer hitch that you had installed on your government car at the taxpayers' expense.

It was hurtful for you to say, “It must be the mother coming out in me.” Most mothers I know put their children's needs first, and go without themselves so their children's needs are met. Maybe, dear Mother, you consider donating your government salary, car or expense credit card to us (your poor children). Or are you just a modern day Marie-antoinette? As Queen of France during the French Revolution, her response to her starving people “let them eat cake”, was as much out of touch as for you, representing the King government, to say “tighten your belt”.

Tanya Desroches,

West Point, P.E.I.