BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled "Premier calls Barrie's parking rate hike 'price gouging' and 'disgusting' published on July 24.
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How thoughtful of Premier Doug Ford to recognize price gouging when he sees it! The previous Toronto administration under the late Rob Ford once contemplated a regional GTA tax as a means of curbing its then-ballooning billion dollar deficit.
I recall Torontonians were quite irate about the additional tax they’d have had to pay for every purchase. Matched only by the grumbles they made over the regional tax then-Mayor Rob Ford imposed on driver’s licence renewals.
Funny how Doug Ford had no problems making similar decisions to serve Toronto’s best interest when he was a city councillor, then turns around and accuses a smaller, central Ontario city of gouging when it is only acting in its own interest.
Barrie has to pay its deficit and repay money lost because of COVID-19. And while our debts don’t compare to, say, mandatory Scarborough Subway plans or Ontario Line construction fees, our poorer, less privileged city is laboring under a heavy deficit made worse by coronavirus countermeasures.
More to the point, Torontonians and others have long exploited our beaches to the detriment of residents’ enjoyment. They’d crowd us out by the hundreds, leave refuse behind that we’d have to pick up, and treated locals with a belligerent sense of entitlement that was simply insufferable.
Imagine what they’d say if loads of Barrie residents did the same thing at the Toronto Island beaches or High Park. Perhaps they wouldn’t notice.
It is only fair to make outsiders pay through the nose to use our facilities and inconvenience us; $50 a day is far too generous. Then there’s the concern Torontonians would contaminate our city with coronavirus. It is unfair the healthier city should have to suffer dangerous intrusions while the crisis continues.
Perhaps Mr. Ford should focus on governing Ontario during this difficult period, or help solve the long-term care crisis, and refrain from bullying a smaller city and causing a needless feud.
Christopher Mansour
Barrie
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