Dear Editor
Council has done a very poor job in their investigating of taking the 25 per cent discount from seniors for water and sewer rates.
Yes, Mister Mayor, some seniors are better off financially than they were 40 years ago. That is, if they are collecting a government pension. But the people who have spent their working years working for the local businesses in Ashcroft don’t get a pension other than the C.P.P. and O.A.S. Has Council investigators looked into how many pensioners have to rely on the G.I.S. (Guaranteed Income Supplement) to make ends meet? I doubt it. The so-called investigators haven’t consulted the pensioners in our subdivision, where the Mayor lives, by the way.
The whole bunch of you should be ashamed of yourselves for even suggesting such a ridiculous plan. To think we voted for this kind of representation! You won’t be representing us the next time around unless you take some concrete action to make this right. I am disappointed and upset that the Ashcroft Village Council decided to raise our water rates by 100 per cent in a five year period, not to mention, unilaterally eliminate the senior subsidy without a word of discussion. There were no meetings with the community, no process, no consultation and no options offered. The days of management style of “Announce and Defend” are long over. To remedy this blind side on the community, it is now up to Council to role this issue back, design a public involvement process and get the community talking about the problem.
By way of this letter, I would encourage all taxpayers in Ashcroft to come out to your Sept. 14 meeting to show how serious this is. Council may want to have the meeting in the Community Hall to accommodate those who will surely show up.
Vern Shuttleworth
Ashcroft