Re: “Tips for reducing Victoria’s budget,” Jan. 28.

The suggestions the writer posits for reducing Victoria’s budgetary dilemmas are short-sighted. I’ve grown quite weary of the championing of the individual taxpayer in this city, as if an individual resident should be able to pick and choose which city services they appreciate most and then not contribute a dime toward services that, perhaps, they share with others. As if the city were a high-class restaurant, and the residents merely guests.

For many residents of downtown Victoria, the Johnson Street Bridge is a staple in their everyday travels. It is far too small to accommodate vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic safely during off times, let alone during rush hour. Encouraging the city to pour money into fixing a 100-year-old bridge, rather than solve multiple issues by replacing it, will only stave off the inevitable.

And please, no more trumpeting the advantages of reducing our civil service providers to minimum-wage positions. Minimum wage is not the answer; a worker pulling down a full-time minimum-wage job barely meets the dividing line between destitute and working poor.

Drew May

Saanich

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