Well folks it’s tax increase time again and here we go. I read as always with trepidation that “due to inflation” the tax rate will increase once again in Qualicum Beach. Say, have any of you fellow retirees noted any inflation in your monthly stipend?
As such, I often wonder what a “financial administrator” is administrating as there never appears to be any thought as to how to cut costs or save a few bucks. Now I have in the past mentioned (sometimes appearing as a rant), issues such as purchasing, for $1.5 million, a parking lot (old school bus garage) and then of course adding some ‘beautification,” and lest we forget the construction of the soon to be “award winning” eco-friendly and green fire hall, for all other bureaucracies to admire and emulate.
And further we also have to take into account a ‘white elephant’ that the old hall will become. Oh did I mention the cost of recent additions and upgrades undertaken just prior to its replacement debate?
We need our elected representatives, if they have the courage, to put a stop to excessive salaries and benefits at the union and management level and to cut back on the make-work projects such as roundabouts and, heaven help us, funiculars (while a brain fart in Parksville, someone here in Qualicum Beach might like that idea).
I encourage the reader to rise up and attend upcoming budget deliberations and let their concerns be heard.
If things continue to go up as they always have we will see an exodus from the town of those who find it unaffordable but still very quaint.
Allan ClarkQualicum Beach
