Editor:
In response to a recent letter from Jayne Williams-Aleck where she criticized Coun. Scott Nelson, by writing, "Scott Nelson is a wealthy man with considerable property holdings in this city, including numerous rental units....With this comes a responsibility..."
Of course, Ms. William-Aleck is entitled to disagree with what Coun. Nelson has proposed as a possible solution but to frame her disagreement the way she did is not acceptable.
To suggest that being a business owner in Williams Lake is an activity which includes an extra moral responsibility which somehow evades people who run other types of businesses such as car dealerships, cannabis stores, logging, liquor stores, groceries or even ranches is unreasonable.
The RCMP have started publishing a weekly report of their activity in our town and it makes for depressing reading. Each week various people are apprehended in, "high drug trafficking/use areas." May we know where these areas are in order that we can avoid them?
One man was consuming methamphetamine in front of BGC Williams Lake. He claimed he was "unhoused' and when the RCMP offered support assistance he refused to accept it.
When my own home was broken into last year I certainly felt vulnerable as I cleaned up the defecation and damage left behind. It gave me no solace that the guilty man could feel that his, "daily life is marked by fear, anger and hopelessness."
Small towns such as ours do not have the financial means to improve this, "complex challenge." I see from my 2025 property tax notice that I am already spending $2,794.75 annually towards the RCMP - how is that working out for us in solving what is now our daily reality?
Our provincial government has a much larger pot of tax money - the taxes on alcohol, tobacco and cannabis could all be sources of revenue - to tackle this.
What is not needed is people who do not even live in Williams Lake nor pay our property taxes making ad hominem insults against our hardworking council members.
Yours sincerely,
Maggie Menzies
Williams Lake
