There shouldn’t even be a referendum on affordable housing tax
Let me get this right as there is a very bad smell about the CVRD’s plans to increase our taxes again after a big increase in this year’s tax bills mostly for pay increases to their staff.
The CVRD public consultation and public feedback on the proposed huge tax increase of more than $750,000 for affordable housing were overwhelmingly negative to the idea.
Taxpayers do not trust the CVRD taking on another responsibility and charging more taxes while it does such a poor and wasteful job on its existing core responsibilities. This is a federal and provincial responsibility that we already pay taxes to those governments for.
Some board members said they received more negative feedback on this issue than any other. The meeting I attended at Kerry Park voted 100 per cent against this new tax grab except for those CVRD staff and housing advocates present.
Yet, the board went ahead and approved wasting tens of thousands more tax dollars to include a referendum in this fall’s elections.
What is going on here? Why did the board mislead the public that the consultation would provide direction on whether to proceed with a public vote or not — it clearly and loudly said no, but now we are going to go ahead with an expensive referendum?
The CHA has never built one house, apartment or supported any affordable housing in spite of already receiving hundreds of thousands of public grant dollars. Last year the CHA spent less than $1,800 of their $92,000 budget on rental assistance and $90,000 on wages, contracts, and travel.
Most of this new tax money will be spent on salaries and building a big bureaucracy to collect more public funds. The CHA are just another grant junkie that proliferates at the public trough in the Cowichan Valley.
Perhaps the main cheerleader for this big tax increase — CVRD board chair Jon Lefebure — could explain to the public what the heck is going on with all this nonsense?
Bill Dumont
Cobble Hill
