To the editor;
Now that everyone in Surrey is working for the City of Surrey sorting garbage, my questions is, do we all get paid from the money saved or in fact generated by energy recovery. Will our utility fees be reduced? Will our taxes go down? Will we get a small dividend cheque quarterly, or will the city spend it somewhere else? Will the mayor and council take an extra trip? Remember gas taxes and how there were to pay for roads but now go to general revenue to pay for all the pet projects of those we elect.
Tolls, user fees, cost reductions, sort your own garbage, yet our city grows by over 1,000 people a month. Do we build new schools as needed? Does the city fix the pot holes in our deteriorating roads? Do we hire bylaws people and then do we actually enforce bylaws, or is it just “general revenue”? Our city is deteriorating; there is shiny new stuff, but who is looking after the existing things? The parks, the roads, the rinks, the fields, the people. The things that matter to Surrey.
It seems to me that the current council believes Surrey’s history started in 2005. Our city needs to protect, preserve and maintain its current infrastructure as well as plan and build for the future. Protect our investments, our homes, our streets, our communities, enforce bylaws and hold those that violate them accountable. While the city closes bylaw offices, opportunists do what they want. A $25,000 fine for flagrant violation of a tree bylaw is peanuts considering the expansion potential for house size and lot layout.
If the future that lives here is about breaking bylaws for a cost, that is a future we must avoid.
When we see clear cuts of parks and streams and people’s private property, something is definitely broken. Perhaps the city would like us to sort the garbage and enforce the bylaws.
While they cut ribbons and cut red tape regarding rules, someone cuts the trees.
Gary T. Robinson
Surrey