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Leave Peninsula residents out of payment formula

LRT, transit, Peninsula, taxes

Most supporters of this $1-billion LRT boondoggle are totally missing the major objection. That is that the LRT will only run between Victoria and the West Shore and yet all CRD residential and business taxpayers will have their transit fees doubled and that is just for the construction.

I live in Sidney, so I will have a major increase in taxes for absolutely no benefit. In fact it will have a negative impact on me since I will no longer be able to use transit to go direct to downtown but will have to get off the Sidney bus and wait for a downtown LRT at the Uptown terminal.

If, as a result, I am inconsiderate enough to go downtown by car, the planned reduction of Douglas Street to just two lanes of traffic will make my daily trip ten minutes longer each way (increasing greenhouse gases) and I will still pay double my transit tax!

If the Victoria and West Shore residents and businesses do really want an LRT then let them pay for it!  In the meantime why aren’t other Peninsula residents and businesses writing to their elected officials and the media to violently object to this proposed huge taxpayer rip-off?

Richard D.B. Talbot

Sidney