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LETTER: Gov't needs to focus on water, education

The Editor,

There are always decisions to be made when spending tax dollars and I find it ironic that some projects seem to have unlimited funding while other equal, or perhaps more important, items get short changed due to "budgetary restraints."

Take for instance the recent Mount Polley tailings pond disaster.

Safeguards need to be put into place and that resolution "can't be delayed by excuses, or budgetary concerns."

It seems the same could be said about the multibillion dollars of taxpayer money that this government has chosen to spend on projects like the Sea to Sky Highway so that the rich in this province can access their recreational properties or on the Olympics, again a venue that only the rich could afford.

Did we really need these multi-billion dollar projects?

It came down to a choice that this current Liberal government has made when spending our tax dollars.

The true irony here is that while one journalist is suggesting that we can't put a dollar value on protection of our waters (which I would whole-heartedly agree with), yet another, on the very next page, suggests that school children could resolve the issue of the teachers' strike given "access to the demands and proposals and the relevant budgets."

What is a "relevant budget"? Certain things in society need to be properly funded and education happens to be one of them.

While this government has chosen to spend billions on unnecessary projects to make the wealthiest of British Columbians happy, it is time to do the right thing and fund what is necessary, like clean water and, yes, education.

There would be no dispute between our teachers and this government if they chose to spend what the rest of Canadians spend on their school children.

Arlene Laing, Surrey