Increasing taxes, not customer service, No. 1 problem
To the Municipality of North Cowichan
Re: tax increases
A recent article in the Cowichan Valley Citizen, quotes your CAO recommending creating five new staff positions to augment service delivery in the region.
He states “how we deliver customer service is our number one problem”.
I submit that your number one problem is escalating tax levels, and that you need to find ways of delivering the necessary services with fewer, rather than more staff.
We are already paying very high levels of property tax with a relatively low industrial contribution, so talk of this magnitude of tax increase will not go down well with residential owners.
Surely the level of services we are now receiving is not so bad as to require an additional five highly paid bureaucrats. Perhaps also, the district is attempting to provide more services than we really need, or a greater level than is actually required.
How about some justification for the need for these services and this level of services before taking the easy way of adding to the top levels of the bureaucracy.
Michael Smith
Chemainus