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Make infrastructure, not war

Taxes, Chamber of Commerce, Victoria, spending

Re: Tax trend unsustainable: Chamber (News, June 10)

The solution here is 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. 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.

We need leaders who can look at the big 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 its roots. Take a stand. Do something that will make your children proud.

Deryk Houston

Victoria