Vancouver approves property tax hike

[ferri]

Vancouver approves property tax hike to fight fentanyl crisis

Property taxes will be going up next year in Vancouver to help the fight against the record number of fentanyl overdoses.
The city has just approved a 0.5 per cent jump in property taxes.
City councilors say Vancouver is in the middle of an opioid crisis and the cost to taxpayers is minimal compared to the amount of lives they can save with the extra cash.

more here:
http://bc.ctvnews.ca/vancouver-approves ... -1.3201787

[bob vernon]

No problem with increasing taxes to help our fellow man who is addicted.

But....... anyone caught in the traffic of fentanyl should receive the death penalty. Or at least the lash. I'm serious when I say this. The traffic of fentanyl endangers lives too easily. The vendor of the drugs knows this, yet still endangers people by selling it. Good enough for me to be convinced the death penalty is warranted. The addicts deserve rehab and compassion, not our scorn. Many addicts should have been institutionalized but we closed those places years ago to give the rich a tax cut.

[twobits]

I hope Gregor and company make more moves like this. It will only hasten his exit from politics by waking up the taxpayers who haven't yet realized they are getting bung holed by this idiot and his socialist agenda.

[twobits]

Instead of a mandatory average tax increase of ten bucks per household, why doesn't Gregor flash his pearly whites and suggest that every household donate ten bucks to his cause on a voluntary basis? Could it be that taxpayers already feel maxed out and it is just easier to make it a law for a horse to drink when you lead it to water?

[django]

I wonder whats going thru Basran's mind right now.

[LTD]

that would earn him a punch in the face

[twobits]

I wonder whats going thru Basran's mind right now.

Hopefully something like "what an idiot".

[Treblehook]

Dumbest thing I ever heard. We all pay sufficient taxes currently and can't imagine why anyone would think we should pay additional taxes to provide funds to combat the fentanyl crisis. Whether these are addicts or recreational drug users...it matters not. the cost to taxpayers for their bad choices is already astronomical if one considers the emergency responders, healthcare or the cost of the crime associated with their drug use. Now we are funding additional safe injection sites that will be expensive when one considers the rent for premises and the salary of paid staff. No way. What taxpayers ought to be demanding is a clear and accurate accounting of every dollar being dedicated to this problem. Every dollar seized by the police from drug traffickers in this country should be forfeited and dedicated to our healthcare system. How our politicians think that we can fund healthcare when this tap is running day and night is a mystery.

[Veovis]

Nevermind the basic merits or stupidity of this concept, there are two main realities that will have issue.

First - they are simply taking money and cheering they helped people, but not having done something.

Second - and most concerning, it sets precedent for the Provincial and federal government healthcare funding authorities to pass the costs of healthcare issues as if it was a municipal issue and not part of the actual healthcare budget and therefore cut funding to areas and claim the property taxes in a local area should be adjusted to pay.

[John500]

Whats next? A tax to walk on Broadway?

[Treblehook]

All of this just goes to prove that these politicians have not a clue about the drug problem nor any notion of how to deal with it. The downside of providing all of these safety nets for drug users is pretty easy to envision. There are lots of people to come to my aid if I OD, so I'll just shoot up and not worry about it. There is a saying that might have some application here: "Build it and they will come." On the legalization of pot front, there are recommendations being made that a higher price should be charged by dispensaries for higher potency pot. That is brilliant. Great way to set things up for unscrupulous lowlife dealers who will undoubtedly horn in on the high grade market by selling their own version laced with God only knows whatto make it seem to have higher THC. And they are recommending that persons under 18 not be able to buy marihuana. Who is going to enforce that? Age restrictions has sure proven effective with liquor hasn't it.

[twobits]

Whats next? A tax to walk on Broadway?

No, a tax to clean the sidewalks so drug addicts have a clean spot to sleep.

[fluffy]

Does it not occur to our provincial government that their systematic de-funding and outright closure of addiction and mental health treatment facilities over the past couple of decades has something to do with this ?

I can't see any caring society simply turning their back on this problem, just letting them die because "It's their own fault" is not an option in my mind. Diabetes, heart disease, smoking related diseases, alcoholism, a whole slew of "life-style" related diseases fall into the same category and get treatment without a second thought, how do you draw a line between those and drug addiction just becasue you don't care for the way the victims dress?

The bigger issue here, as has been mentioned already, is the down-loading of provincial responsibilities onto other levels of government. BC governments of all stripe have been stripping social services and related healthcare for decades and now they cry to the Feds for help and standby nodding approval when municipal governments take up the burden themselves. What's wrong with that picture ?

[Treblehook]

These off the scale numbers of overdoses and overdose deaths are a direct result of the introduction of fentanyl and carfentanyl into the scene. As long as there has been people addicted to hard drugs, there have been a few who have succumbed to overdoses... that reality has proven to be pretty much unavoidable. IMHO two things need to happen in response to the unprecedented numbers of overdoses. First, the efforts to educate people as to the dangers that are inherent in using these substances. Since eradicating the fentanyl problem is not likely to occur in the foreseeable future, education efforts need to reach down into the middle school level at the least. Secondly, I think the courts need to impose the harshest of sentences on people who are trafficking in fentanyl and carfentanyl laced drugs. These are lethal substances and lacing otherwise non-lethal drugs of abuse is tantamount to criminal negligence at the very least.

[ferri]

This is right on the edge of being on topic.

9 overdose deaths in Vancouver last night
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... 00437?cid=