The article in the Moose Jaw Express June 19th edition (Page A23), I thought was well-written and informative. I hope all M.J. residents read it and are concerned.
The fact that this city has a 100-million-dollar surplus on the books blows my mind! Where did this money come from and what is Moose Jaw doing with it?
Why are we facing numerous tax increases to pay for things like infrastructure upgrades, the new hospital, new water lines and other things. These are major upgrades and funding them at least partly should be taken from the 100 million in taxes we have already paid, if not, why not?
The Bank of Canada reports a “basket” of goods and services that cost $100 million in the year 2000 would cost $143 million in 2019; this is regular inflation and as accurate a number as we can find. Now numerous articles are out there speaking of how fast construction costs, particularly on road construction, are escalating.
The mention is made of double that of inflation…possibly even triple. We could have done all the infrastructure upgrades over the years making much better use of these funds and saving the taxpayers of this city a lot of money.
I think Dawn Luhning is a fine councillor, hard working and dedicated but her attitude regards questioning by taxpayers is concerning. After all. we [citizens of Moose Jaw] pay all the bills and have rights, one of which is information which seems to be hard to get from this council.
Decisions regarding the use of these funds should be made by the people who own the money, THE TAX PAYERS of Moose Jaw.
-- Ken Wright
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
