Letters to the Editor
November 29, 2008 01:57 AM
RE: ‘Province gives back $50M: York’.
An article by Chris Traber and David Fleischer was published in the Sunday, Nov. 2, edition of The Liberal.
It is amazing to see the number of individuals and institutions who hail the provincial decision and also the number of individuals who would like to take credit for hammering out the deal.
It’s not difficult to imagine the number of councillors and CEOs of some of the institutions rubbing their palms with glee and ready to advise the region and the municipalities how to best spend the windfall.
Remember, the title of the article clearly says and very appropriately that the ‘province gives back’.
The downloading of welfare costs on the municipalities by the Conservative Government of Mike Harris was borne fully by increased taxes on property owners, always the easiest target of politicians of any stripe.
Now that the province, under the Liberal government and despite the current economic circumstances, has agreed to pay back what the Conservatives had mercilessly grabbed from the property owners, I suggest the Region and the municipalities pay back the property owners first before redistributing the monies to be received to those who are now clamouring to get a piece of the pie.
The property owners are the victims who shouldered for the last several years the full brunt of the Conservative downloading and should be rewarded.
Francis Noronha
Richmond Hill