Re: “Residents are more than taxpayers,” St. Albert Gazette, Aug. 11, most people — me for one — regularly refer to themselves as a taxpaying member of this community because city council seems to have forgotten just where the money comes from.
Yes we do need affordable housing in St. Albert. The questions are how much and where? Do we dump all manner of affordable housing in neighbourhoods that are considered ‘undesirable’ by the standards of a few? Or do we distribute these homes throughout the whole of St. Albert?
Yes, as citizens we need to look to the future but we must also give credit to the past. Do we tell all the seniors who helped build this community that since they can no longer afford the taxes for those “must-have” big-ticket items that they need to make way for others who can? Or do we look to our city council to become fiscally responsible and make it possible for them to stay in the town they helped build?
When you reference housing, you state that, “to some degree we can control that by the type, size and location of the home we choose to live in.” Isn’t that a lot like saying if you can’t afford to live here, then don’t? How different is your comment from that of Chris and Karleena Perry?
You are right that special interest groups do deserve a say in what happens to our lovely city, However, there is a difference between “needs” and “wants” and it is extremely obvious that we cannot differentiate between the two. Do we “need” to spend even $100 on downtown or should we look to the retail community to bring business their way? Has anyone bothered to find out how Whyte Avenue got their huge following?
To be frank, over the years were it not for the Taxpayers Association, we could have ended up with even more white elephants than we pay for now. So before you pooh-pooh people who take the time to do the research without funding from city hall and whose only interest is ensuring we can all afford to live in St. Albert, perhaps you might consider the fact that these people are working for you.
Fred Trotter, St. Albert
