May not be popular

Letter to the editor,
As the discussion on Rainy River taxes continues I’m becoming more educated about the situation.
One thing has become abundantly clear to me and that is the off balance way taxes are being allocated. There are approximately 20 storefront businesses located in the Town of Rainy River.
The current population of Rainy River is 909. That would mean that the business sector is slightly more than 2% of the population but paying 26.1% of the property taxes. That would be quite acceptable in many other communities where they have a healthy business sector but we have a unique situation here.
Our tiny business community is not healthy or thriving and cannot tolerate such an off balance of the tax appropriations.
We’ve all watched our local businesses close, one by one. The end result is a skeleton of a business community and more businesses are still facing the same demise.
I would be interested in hearing some feedback from the other citizens of Rainy River. I would like to add that I know and very much respect the good people that run our town but perhaps this situation needs to be addressed.
It may not initially be very popular with the residential taxpayers since no one likes to see their taxes increased but if they would only look at the long term picture and see what is at stake. I would like to think that our local community can see the logic in this and support a more evenly balanced tax system.
–Monica Pigeon (Nelson)
Fort McMurray, AB