[redforever]

Originally quoted by GreenTeaFrapp;2756875 Would these communities be booming without proximity to Calgary? No, they're parasites living off the opportunities provided by Calgary.

And would Calgary be as sustainable if the parasites were not employed by various companies or businesses in Calgary? Those businesses are providing sustainability to Calgary, no matter who they employ. If the workforce those businesses required was available in Calgary, why are they hiring from parasite communities? Viable businesses are a huge benefit to Calgary.

I guess you might have to enact hiring policies for businesses in Calgary. I am sure they will be only too willing to go along with that.

Do you not think that a significant portion of provincial and federal tax dollars come from Calgary?

I am fully aware of that. The topic is user fees to cover the maintenance costs of some of your services. I already told you I am willing to pay user fees and I do. So I will ride the C Train, I will pay the user fees, what is the problem? Capital costs were shared.

And when I disagreed with the premise that parasites are cheap, you responded with

Did I say that? No, I didn't. And I don't think anyone else here did either.

If you go a few posts above my other response, you will find your own words, and they are

They're a captive audience since most of the time the reason they moved out of the city was because they're cheap.

And your husband benefited by having customers who had access to his business through public transit.

Well, truth be told, not nearly as much as the city of Calgary. With the various companies he and his partners have had, they have employed well over 100 Calgarians in the oil and gas industry as well as people in the service sector of the oil and gas industry within and outside of Calgary. So he supported your tax base.

Well, for the rental properties it's actually the renters who are paying the taxes indirectly.

No, the owners of the property pay the taxes, no matter if they are Calgarians or parasites. It matters not if the house is for their children to live in, if the house is for the owners themselves to live in when they are in Calgary, if the house is left vacant, or if there are renters in the house. The owners of the property pay the taxes.

Calgarians aren't riding free since their tax dollars pay the bills regardless of whether or not they use transit or abuse the honour system. The only ones who are riding free are the people from parasite communities who abuse the honour system.

Plain and simple, they are cheating you and you are paying more because of that fact. And so am I.

So they shouldn't charge people to ride the buses and trains at all then since doing so only increases bureaucracy, discourages people from using the system and encourages people to try to beat the system as demonstrated by all the people who beat the honour system according to you. Why should the city of Calgary encourage people to live in parasite communities and drain away tax dollars that could be invested in Calgary infrastructure?

Get real. I was talking about services for Calgarians, not the so called parasites who are apparently draining your system. If the bus service in Calgary was up to par, more Calgarians would be taking the bus to the C Train stations and not driving there. Other people in this thread have already alluded to that fact. The bus service in many of the outlying areas of Calgary is cumbersome to say the least. Make it easier for the citizens of Calgary to buy into the plan.