The Editor,
Why do we need a $10,000,000 expense for a new municipal headquarters? (La Pêche to borrow $9.1 M for new town hall, July 6 edition). The math is flawed: $33 a year times 30 years means taxpayers are paying $1000 each. The cost of 10 million dollars is for an average yearly tax bill of $3,000, the combined taxes for 3,500 taxpayers — this [does] not include interest charges.
If the $10 million was in the bank, the interest lost is $300,000 a year x 30, [which] is another 10 million. So, hello, that is a $20 million dollar loss to taxpayers for a building we do not need. Remember the last two years — the building was not being used as everything was online. This it’s "eco friendly so we are saving the planet” excuse is a false premise, as if building materials arrive on electric trucks; [as if] the manufacture of all these climate-friendly materials appears in a carbon-free factory; [as if] the construction workers walk to the site.
This is 2022; computers take less space and less staff. The present building is fine, not impressive, but might remind our civil servants [that] luxury offices and more space are not in the best interest of the taxpayers — who you get paid by.
Randolph McMillan
Wakefield, QC