To Sandy Silver and Kate White
Once again Kate White and her socialist policies have come to the fore, but this time she has dragged Silver down to her level.
I refer to the announcement last night of the proposed rental rate increase cap. You obviously have no idea of how businesses are run even though you, Kate, profess to being a small business owner. The basics of business is to make a profit. This has been the practice since the first person gave a sharpened stone to another in exchange for a handful of berries.
Your announcement of a one per cent rental increase cap is attempting to ensure that there is no profit or that there are financial losses for some rental properties. Immediately after reading this announcement we wrote up the first of four eviction notices to our tenants. The first was delivered this morning and a For Sale sign will go up on the property this weekend. As this house sells which in the present market should not be long, the next eviction notice will go out. Over the course of the next few months there will be four less rental accommodations available in Whitehorse. One by the way is in your riding Kate.
This is not being done with malice but only as a way of protecting our investments. The rental increase you propose wouldn’t even cover the cost of my insurance increase this year. City taxes have also gone up more than one per cent, not to mention that other costs have risen excessively over the past year too.
There will be more profit made by putting the money from the sales in the bank even at the meager interest rates being paid, rather than continuing to rent the houses.
So now let’s see what you have accomplished. Firstly there are now going to be four more families looking for very scarce accommodations. Which when they do find will likely be at much higher cost than now because new tenants will have to fill the cash void created over the next two years by your agreement with Silver. It would be no surprise if you continue to hold Silver for ransom to extend this agreement.
Next, nine children will most likely be changing schools, as they may be living in different areas than now. More mental strain on children and parents which they really need in this pandemic situation we are in.
The government is most likely going to be paying out an additional $1,800.00 per year in home owner tax grants. I will not be paying near the amount of taxes on investment income to the government. Piddly little sums in the world of government, but still there.
It is beyond comprehension why there seems to be a plot against landlords. If you think we are making money by the bag full you are sadly mistaken. You sit back and suck up a huge salary at the public trough with no regard for the peon tax payers who are paying your salary.
I didn’t invest my money to provide social housing. This is the task of government. Well Silver, you may have the title of premier but we all know who has who by what. My sympathy to the Territory. The election results proved that the people do not want the NDP in power, but you have cowardly turned it over to them.
Dave Avoledo
Whitehorse Landlord
(retiring)
Why I Got My Shot
The last week in April is world immunization week. In support of the goal of building awareness and support for immunization which saves millions of lives each year, I thought I would share my five reasons for getting the Covid mRNA vaccine (Moderna) here this spring.
1. I didn’t want to get COVID-19 and especially didn’t want to die from it. I am in a high-risk group because I am in my 60s. Vaccination is my best shot at avoiding the infection or the most serious form of the disease.
2. I didn’t want my friends, family or people in my community to get it either. My vaccine protects them too. If I don’t get it, I can’t pass it to others.
3. I want as much of my old life back as possible — like being able to go to large gatherings like concerts, church, choir, music festivals, theatre, and the bike race to name a few, but also the small but important gatherings like going for a coffee or a drink or dinner with my friends and family, not to mention hugs, singing with abandon, and other simple pleasures. And eventually I hope to invite my dear extended family here for an excellent Yukon wilderness adventure. I know that our best shot at getting the current restrictions relaxed is to have as many Yukoners vaccinated as possible. So I wanted to do my part.
4. To be honest, I did wonder about vaccine safety at first, so I read a lot about COVID and the vaccine in scientific journals and newsletters that I’ve trusted over the years like the Mayo Clinic newsletter and the journal Nature. They all said the vaccine was safe: because of the way it’s designed there is no possibility of any mutations in my own body or any infection from it. mRNA vaccines have been in development since the 90s and have been used for other diseases like rabies and even cancer. So this type of vaccine is not something brand-new or untested. I also talked it over with a doctor I trusted.
5. I also found it very helpful to listen to Dr. Hanley and people like Chief Steve Smith of CAFN on the radio as they answered questions in a non-judgmental and honest way about why they were encouraging people to get the vaccine.
I am hoping that as many of us as possible get the vaccine that we are so very lucky to have here in the territory. I understand that the uptake is lowest among younger people and perhaps that is because there was such an emphasis on high risk to the elderly for months and months — but now it’s become clear that the variants are infecting more younger people with more serious outcomes than was the case at the beginning of the pandemic. I encourage everyone who is worried or wondering about the vaccine to reach out to their doctor or to Yukon public health at 1-877-374-0425 for information.
Sincerely,
Heather MacFadgen
Whitehorse