LETTER: Tax hikes a slap to the face

CambridgeToday received the following letter Chair and CEO of Property Taxpayers Alliance about the rising taxes in Waterloo Region.

I am writing on behalf of the Property Taxpayers Alliance. Waterloo Region property taxpayers must realize by now how desperately out of touch Chair Karen Redman and council are. The vast majority of the region’s property taxpayers are simply not being listened to. Rather, they are being dictated to.

Council have spent weeks and weeks struggling to bring down the regional tax levy. The best they can do is a 9.48 per cent tax bill increase for 2025? You’ve got to be kidding me.

And the Waterloo regional police are getting an 8.56 per cent increase. Say what?

There is something terribly terribly wrong with this picture. It is a slap to the face for hard-working homeowners who will see a two per cent increase in wages in 2025, if they’re lucky.

The region’s 9.48 per cent increase is almost five times the Bank of Canada’s two per cent projected inflation rate for 2025.

If this is the best they can do to cut costs and get the tax bill impact down closer to the two per cent inflation mark, its time we all vote for change, big change!

John B. Waylett
Chair & CEO
Property Taxpayers Alliance
Cambridge