I wrote to Vancouver City Council today, and you can too, asking them to vote against the $20.3 million in cuts to libraries, community centres, fire and rescue, parks and other vital front-line services that Council conditionally approved on Dec. 1.
As we come out of recession, I think that this is the worst time to be cutting services that help ordinary citizens.

I urged them to find other ways to balance the budget, such as raising property taxes three to five per cent across the board for all property owners, before considering deep cuts to city services. Just as federal and provincial downloading have increased budget pressures on the city, I believe that continual tax cuts by the federal and provincial governments gives the city room for raised property taxes.

If we are to keep the services that Canadians want, we have to pay for them somewhere.