Asking if council cares

To the Editor,

The composite correction team really made it sound like all of the numbers at the sewer plant in Bancroft are within normal ranges. They're exactly what they would expect to find here or anywhere else.

The fact is that the councils from 2011 to 2016 didn't do what they needed to do. They put Bancroft in a very bad financial situation.

The people in Dungannon have had enough and just want out. All of us have seen our taxes increase by over 100 per cent.

Since we built our house in 1996, our taxes steadily increased from $1,100 to over $3,700 per year.

It is the same house and the same land. The only difference is that I now have garbage and recycling  pickup. This isn't enough for me to keep paying you guys.

I am tired of trying to get you to understand what you are doing to your people.

This council is more concerned about a taxpayer taking a boat on Clark Lake instead of worrying about how it's going to increase the tax base so you don't wipe out your town.

The province doesn't give a damn about us and never will. We keep following their lead and we keep going further and further into debt.

Don't you care that more than 30 per cent of our kids are living in poverty?

Don't you care that our seniors are not able to cook supper because the hydro is too expensive?

Don't you care that our young families are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table?

To me your priorities are all wrong. Your excuses for raising the water and sewer rates are just that: excuses. The real problem with the town right now is the lack of money. As long as you keep spending without planning for it nothing is going to change.

In my opinion this whole thing with the composite correction is just another way the province is using us and our money to say that they are right and we are wrong. The province has led you around by the nose for so many years that you don't know what else to do. Maybe you should be looking out for and speaking up for your people.

The big problem here is that there is no end in sight and we still have people who think they can justify putting us into more debt.

De-amalgamation is not an option but maybe dissolving the corporation of the Town of Bancroft is. We can't keep putting more debt and higher costs on our people.

The food bank has seen an increase. Why? Because people have to choose between water and food. If you agree that the politicians need to start listening to their people, then please join me at Club 580 on March 25 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. to send a message to the town, county, province and federal governments about how their decisions are negatively impacting our small rural community.

Check out our Facebook page at Concerned Citizens of Bancroft and Dungannon.

Wilma Brethour