Madam Mayor, Members of Council, Staff and fellow residents.........

As you are well aware, my wife Norma and I started a petition after reading several articles in the local newspapers regarding large raises in pay for City Hall employees and another re: a proposed increase in property taxes of 4% per year for the next 5 years. Obviously this concerned us and hundreds of other taxpayers in this city. Since we started the Petition in the Summer, we have spoken to a good cross section of residents in Pitt Meadows and people are hurting financiallywe have heard of people taking a roll back in wages in order to keep their jobs, even losing their jobs, and of course ultimately losing their homes. The dream of living in the suburbs in such a beautiful bedroom community as ours are being stolen by the ever increasing spending and tax increases imposed by you, our elected officials.

We've spoken to business owners who have had to cut their own salaries and staff to keep afloat and in some cases, they had to close down completely. This accounts for some of the obvious empty stores in our city and yet you still want to build more?

In our case, as with every senior, especially those relying on pensions alone, we haven't had a raise in years! Yes, in these tough financial times, we have to run our homes like well-oiled machinery. We have to stick to a budget and refrain from charging up huge debts that we can't pay off. Raises seem to be automatic in City Hall, but they arent for the rest of us. I compiled some percentages on the wage increases from 2008 to 2011 (using the SOFI reports available at city hall) and quite frankly I am appalled. During that 3 year period, The mayors salary rose 37.69% on top of high stipends received for attending numerous Metro Vancouver meetings, instead of being present in City Hall as a full time Mayor, as promised. Councillors wages rose by 43.77%, but it is recognized that the wages are not exorbitant. Meanwhile, Upper management staff in the city saw raises between 5 and 32 per cent....how can this be considered 'OKAY'? It is very hard for us to understand how these increases can stand up to scrutiny.

The city often pats itself on the back for having the third lowest taxes in Metro Vancouver. While that may be true, we feel that a more accurate reflection of fiscal responsibility is the Business Council of BC report on the growth of municipal spending in Metro Vancouver from 2000 to 2010. This report clearly shows that per capita spending ranked Pitt Meadows the third worst municipality in the region. We now have in excess of 1200 names on our petition. 1,200 PLUS VOICES asking council for relief on their tax bills next year. We hope council and city staff are willing to listen to solutions from us, the residents, who have spent several months analyzing the citys budget and believe a zero tax increase is possible without drastic cuts to services. You say a zero tax increase is impossible and unrealistic. We beg to differ. Upon doing some research on city budgets, I have found that Richmond, North Vancouver, Penticton, Mission, to name a few have accomplished a 0% or near 0% budget. THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL. WE ARE ASKING, ONCE AGAIN, FOR 0% TAX INCREASE FOR 2013.

Thank you for your time.