Dear Editor,
Re: “Connectedness at heart of tax gift” (The Reminder, July 9)
Ingi Bjornson’s $500 annual gift to the City of Flin Flon is admirable. Commendable, even.
But to equate such a freewill donation with taxes is absurd. Not only are the dollar amounts hardly comparable, but having the extra money to donate is quite far from comparable to being required by law to pay for services not received.
And that is precisely what cottagers take issue with – they receive no tangible benefit from new taxation, while the City of Flin Flon finds a nice cash cow to further their irresponsible spending.
To understand why there is such a backlash from the cottage community, let’s examine the origins and purposes of taxation.
It’s not just to provide the local government with money. It’s to provide the government with the means to provide for the needs of their citizens. Taxes are what fund roads, sidewalks, garbage collection, water and sewer services, among many other services. The cottagers would receive none of these services, even though they would be paying taxes.
Having spoken to some (and being related to others), it seems like most cottagers are fine with paying extra fees for accessing services such as the Aqua Centre and Flin Flon Library.
But it makes no sense for them to pay full taxes since they will never get sewers or sidewalks or snow removal paid for and provided by the city.
For one reason or another, these cottagers have decided not to live in Flin Flon itself. This is rarely as a tax-evasion attempt. The attractiveness of lakeside property, the quiet of the wilderness, being able to have a fire pit and being surrounded by nature are just some of the reasons people chose to live out at the lake.
Some, like my grandparents, may never have actually lived in the City of Flin Flon throughout their whole lives.
But they are, or at least were, proud to call Flin Flon their hometown. They went to school there, they fell in love there, they got married there and had their children and even a grandchild (that’s me!) at the Flin Flon General Hospital.
These days, they go to church there, do their shopping there, have their mail sent there and seek medical treatment there. They ARE part of the community. They ARE Flin Flonners. So why make them distance themselves from their own identity?
In a time when the Flin Flon area is in an economic downturn, the solution is not to scare away potential newcomers, tourists and old friends by imposing taxes on them everywhere they turn, but to welcome them with open arms in the typical Flin Flonner style.
Jenna Coutts
Winnipeg
Dear Editor,
It was interesting to see Ms. Nadine Smart’s interview in Wednesday’s Reminder about the proposed location of Canadian nuclear waste.
Ms. Smart is to be commended for her commitment, but I must take issue with something she said.
She describes how her group has started its own Facebook page, “Committee for Future Generations,” implying what a good thing this is.
I would like to say that I have visited this page many times and there is some good information on it. However, there have been posts that are outrageously misinformed. I commented accordingly, in a respectful fashion. My comments were never posted and I am now blocked from commenting.
For a community group that professes to be about gaining knowledge, this seems to me to be a direct denial of freedom of speech.
Any organization that cannot tolerate disagreement or refutation of facts must be viewed as suspect.
Buz Trevor
Denare Beach
