LOCAL MAN DOESN’T WANT OSOYOOS TO BE BUSY WITH TOURISTS 12 MONTHS OF THE YEAR
Posted on 15 August 2012 by admin
Dear Editor:
This letter is written in response to the recent Town of Osoyoos Downtown Sidewalk Survey.
Before you start this survey, why not ask us, the residents of this community, if we want to cater to tourists for three months out of 12 or 25 per cent of the year?
There is more to this town than businesses catering to them 25 per cent of the time. What about the other 75 per cent of the time over the remaining nine months of the year?
We pay taxes 12 months of the year.
On this survey, you are asking the tourists for their input. I have to ask why? They’ll say yes and get in their car and drive away after one or two weeks of staying in Osoyoos and leave us with this extra expense. Am I missing something here? I would also like to ask why doesn’t the town study the possibility of having the highway bypass Main Street?
I have lived in this community for 49 years and I think these are fair questions.
Dale Hopkins
Osoyoos, B.C.
Dale,
What extra expense are the tourists leaving? The huge amount of money they spend directly affects your tax rate and the amneties you locals enjoy year round. So what your saying really is, prosperity is killing my town? The world continues to move forward Dale, regardless of how hard you dig in your heels.
Many of these tourists pay taxes 12 months a year too…they own condo’s and other vacation homes in Osoyoos. Osoyoos is a tourist town like it or not.
What possible expense can a leaving tourist have?
What extra expense are they leaving?
Now that the tourists ( with their big boats and lack of consideration for the locals) have left pollution in our lake and filled our landfill… they really haven’t left anything except for parking spaces.