Dear Editor

This letter is addressed to Warden Jane Toller and all mayors and councillors of the area.

What caused me to write this letter was kind of the final straw, after months of things being said and done.

One day last week, my wife just parked her car in a handicap spot at a local store, where she was approached by . . .

a man demanding to know what she was doing there. She told him she was there to pick up a few necessities. His reply: “You’re from Ontario, why are you here?” She explained, we have a cottage here and then she asked him where he lived. He replied “in Shawville.” She was upset and replied that the people with cottages pay more taxes than those living in town. The man at that point walked away.

I do not think that the permanent residents living here realize, or want to accept the fact that the people with cottages and lake front property pay a much higher tax rate. In some of the municipalities the seasonal residents pay a very large percentage of the tax base, ie. Thorne 85 per cent. Any municipality with waterfront properties is also getting a good percentage. We are expected to help support local events and fundraisers. We try to support the local businesses. Out support from May until October helps carry these businesses through the lean winter months. We have been here supporting businesses, paying taxes and supporting the communities for almost 50 years.

I am tired of hearing “I wish the ones from Ontario would stay away.”

This has come from the top, all the way down, including some business owners. Enough is enough. Even an animal knows better than to bite the hand that feeds it. It is no wonder the area is having a hard time getting new people and businesses to come here. Things need to change or there will be more empty buildings that used to contain businesses. It’s a shame when people with Ontario plates are afraid to go to town in fear of getting stopped by police or harassed.

Darl Garlough

Thorne and Bristol, Que.