Dear Editor:
Sylvia Taylor wrote a letter regarding the tax increases to which Mayor Richard Walton replied, saying the increases were only 2.5 per cent. My tax increase was 20 per cent. Could I please get a refund of 17.5 per cent differential? I contacted Ralph Sultan, who sent me a nice hand-written note with an attached email copy of the objection that he sent to the minister of finance. I believe Simon and Garfunkel wrote a hit song called "The Sounds of Silence." The main cause was the province reducing the home owner grant.
The timing was also wonderful as the period had passed when we could question our assessment. They have also passed riparian laws that effectively remove 7,000 square feet from our property as they acquired 15 metres on each side of our stream without compensation. The assessment people, when I protested, said "everybody wants a stream."
Malcolm Barnes
North Vancouver
