Editor:
An Open Letter to the Cariboo Regional District Board:
At its Feb. 21 meeting, Williams Lake City Council passed a resolution in which it calls on the Cariboo Regional District board of directors to adopt a new “social planning” function in order to fund social planning initiatives, both on a local/regional basis.
However, residents in both CRD electoral areas D and F have previously raised concerns about the rapid rise in local taxation.
Social planning is, in my opinion, a domain of municipalities and not necessarily of rural areas and residents themselves in CRD electoral areas A through L have not asked for this new service previously, in accordance with the mandate of the Cariboo Regional District.
With the establishment of this new service, heavy industry will strongly question the commitment of, not only this board, but those of municipal leaders in the Cariboo-Chilcotin on their drive to ensure municipal spending is kept to the bare essentials and that the taxation system is fair and balanced for all of the nine taxation classes.
Therefore, I strongly urge and call upon the CRD Electoral Area (rural) directors to reject in its entirety the request of the increasingly out-of-touch and elitist Williams Lake City Council.
Steve Forseth
Williams Lake