General Business Updates and News

[plam]

I did write to the Waterloo mayor expressing my support for her vote about the police budget vote and got a response thanking me for writing in. So maybe write to your elected officials about their votes.

As for taxes, I understand that it can be tough for some of us to pay the bills. But in a high inflation environment what's the alternative? I kind of think that Ontario municipalities have had this thing where there has been chronic underfunding of services. Cities also have to pay the bills. Where is the money going to come from?

(I don't think this is as true of the federal government and maybe provincial governments. But it is definitely true of municipal governments.)

I think the key here is that we pay a lot, but it doesn't seem to be going as far "as it used to". I think there's some truth to that statement, since more and more of our budgets are being taken up to maintain aging, inefficient infrastructure, leaving less money to actually choose to build better infrastructure.

But nobody thinks that way when they get their tax bill and just assume it's all "red tape" and government waste.

Meanwhile, we're still approving new car-dependent low density suburbs while the old ones are bankrupting us RIGHT NOW.

Are we paying a lot? What does it mean to pay a lot? We just underspent in the past because it was not going to catch up to us for a while and now it has. But yes, I agree about the new suburbs, sigh.