Letter to the Editor: City Taxes
It is discouraging to hear our city leaders suggest that the salvation to our tax problems might be to encourage a casino in the heart of our city.
I would much rather see a plan where our leaders join together and make it clear to our federal government that we need more money to fix our bridges, sewers, highways and general infrastructure of our expanding city.
The thing that’s baffling to me is that the people in the cities can’t make the connection that their city taxes are being used to finance our foreign wars.
Our federal government is spending billions on fighter jets and military adventures overseas. It costs Canada five hundred thousand dollars a year to keep “one” soldier in Afghanistan. (That doesn’t include the cost of his wages or the two billion dollars worth of equipment he uses.)
The only way our federal government can participate in these grossly expensive, high tech wars is by cutting down the amount they pay to the provincial governments who then cut down the amount they pay to the cities who then have to raise taxes.
And yet these wars are not even an election issue.
For example, the ill conceived and costly war in Libya was endorsed by all political parties of Canada including the Green Party and the NDP.
That adventure has inflamed a civil war and caused a million people to flee the country and will result in tens of thousands of deaths as fighting rages for years to come.)
My point is that everything is connected. There is a reason that cities across Canada are being forced to increase taxes. The last thing we need is for our politicians to look to casino’s as the answer to our problem.
We need leaders who can look at the bigger picture and tackle the provincial and federal government.
We need to join communities together and take a firm stand by forcing the federal government to understand that they can’t afford to spend billions on war machines while our cities scramble to pick up the debt load.
I imagine it is not easy to run a city. But we need to look deeper to find solutions to our problems. I encourage our city leaders to tackle this problem at it’s roots. Take a stand. Do something that will make your children proud.
A casino will only rob those who can least afford it.
Here is a link that explains why Vancouver recently rejected the big casino option.
http://vancouvernotvegas.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/OpposingExpansionofEdgewaterCasino.pdf
Here are some quotes:
“The proposed Edgewater Casino expansion is unanimously opposed by all seven Vancouver Medical Health Officers, the Provincial Health Officer and retired Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. John Blatherwick.”
“Gambling addiction as a serious public health issue ”
“Eighteen retired senior policing specialists oppose the expansion, stating that “Without significant changes in the policing protocol, and the adoption of rigorous crime control standards for casinos such as those employed by the Ontario Provincial Police, we are in no position to deal with the increased criminal activity that will necessarily attend the development of a massive casino on the scale proposed here.”
Here is another link:
Suicide and gambling
http://archive.safety-council.org/info/community/gambling.html
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