Dear editor,
I just received my Canada Pension Plan adjustment of $2.92 extra a month, which is $35.04 per year with the cost of living indexing. Courtenay taxes will go up 2.83 per cent, which is $35.26 extra per year.
There goes my CPP raise plus a few cents more.
Then, with all the other department taxes such as water, sewage, hospital, school etc., my whole bill will be approximately $138.26 extra per year.
I guess this means myself and some of the other pensioners will have to give up things like shelter, heat, electricity, food or possibly any entertainment to cover this rise.
We are already tightening our belts with the price of gas pushing up the price of food and anything that is shipped in to Courtenay but here is another burden. I think that within 10 years the city of Courtenay will own my house and I’ll either be in a retirement home or on the street.
With many people in the Valley being pensioners, the town will be pushing us out through taxation, rising fees and financing stupid unnecessary projects like the Fifth Street improvement project. I suppose it is stupid even to think that any city or community in Canada would ever lower taxes after they have fed from the tax trough, but here’s hoping someday we elect responsible, honest, citizen concerned politicians who realize there is such a thing as “too many taxes and fees.”
Penny Hayworth
Courtenay