Editor:
I agree with one thing in the June 27 Black Press Media editorial, and that is “Canada has room for all.” Unfortunately, we don’t have enough of anything else, whether it be health care, schools, housing, public safety, first responders…virtually all necessary infrastructure.
Our government has decided that one solution is to continually increase our population to provide people to fulfil these needs, although the reality is that the more people we add only adds to our shortcomings and cost of living, putting increased burden on existing taxpayers, most particularly on retirees with fixed incomes.
Another government solution has been to mandate “densification” and change the rules affecting housing/investment decisions people have been living with for many, many decades. The quiet, single-family neighbourhood we decided to spend our final years in is already changing, to our dismay.
And as for Canada being diverse and home to 450 ethnic groups, that depiction is misleading. Statistics paint a clear picture as to cultural breakdown, which explains why there are wide swaths of the Lower Mainland where one cannot interact in either of Canada’s two official languages. That is not diversity.
All levels of government should revamp their planning departments and instead of simply reacting to one crisis after another, take a hard look at what we require going forward.
Walt McAloney, Surrey
