The Editor,
Re. “Moore defends Metro retro pay plan” (front page, The Tri-City News, March 30).
There’s a quote that states: “It’s more blessed to give than receive.” And there’s another one that goes: “Blessed are the meek… yada, yada, yada.”
That being the case, we, the taxpayers, are the most blessed of all creatures. We give and give and give, yet never seem to be on the receiving end. But are we meek, you ask?
How else can you explain this innate ability our politicians possess to keep draining us of our hard-earned money without a peep or protest from most of us?
Now, one could look at this from another angle. Port Coquitlam Mayor Greg Moore has been able to fine tune and finesse the concept of giving in which he is also on the receiving end. We have this fiasco with the Metro Vancouver board, of which Mayor Moore is the chair, which voted to give departing members a retroactive separation pay plan.
This follows a decision by Mayor Moore and PoCo councillors to give hefty raises to his successor and future councillors starting in 2019.
This cavalier attitude politicians have at all levels of government to arbitrarily give themselves pay raises, huge pensions and benefits cannot continue. There needs to be some oversight committee or measures in place to regulate these politicos. Using taxpayers as their personal ATMs is an insult.
Mayor Moore’s rationale behind these monetary miasmic decisions is one rhetorically used by many a politician to justify their own greedy, self-serving intentions: To attract the brightest and the best, you must have the financial incentives in place.
These financial incentives have been in place for many, many years, so how come we have so many bozos in federal, provincial and civic politics?
Neil Swanson, Coquitlam
