Dear WWIND,
I was having coffee with friends and watching the world go by when I noticed a brand new Ford pickup truck with full police type lights on it and two brand new, very expensive Mountain Bikes, racked by the tailgate. Two people inside were in full police type uniforms with everything but guns! No expense spared! This truck had Bylaw Infractions Officers written on the sides of it in large letters. I was astonished and I asked my friends do they need all this to look for bylaw infractions? I was told that this truck was one of many now in the Cowichan Valley because of the many problems associated with the “safe” injection sites.
I was informed that they are patrolling the homeless encampments around the “safe” injection sites and also keeping an eye open because of all the crime that is happening around our town because of these sites. I said “Then they are not Bylaw Infractions Officers, but rather another layer of policing?” I wonder if it is right that the taxpayers of Cowichan Valley are paying for an auxiliary police force to help try and combat and control a runaway experiment brought on by the Federal Government and a naive Provincial Government driven by ideology that has gone very, very wrong with overdose deaths that have tripled and crime alongside it?
North Cowichan has increased property taxes by 5.28% and the CVRD has increased property taxes by a whopping 16.35% with little being done to repair our aging infrastructure. And looking ahead there are going to be more tax increases.
It is time that our local politicians and taxpayers complain to our federal and provincial governments that we are tired of paying for their foolish decisions.
Sincerely, John
