The Editor,
The City of Richmond and its core of volunteers should be commended for the high quality of this year's Maritime Festival.
It was enjoyable, well organized, and attracted a large contingent of visitors to the city's historic shipbuilding and fishing industry sites. Well done Richmond.
Walking down the pier along the Britannia Shipyards to view the array of boats on display, however, it was clear that the Richmond Ships to Shore event could easily have been accommodated at this venue.
There was no need to build a new pier at Garry Point Park, or to spend $2-million in tax dollars on a structure that virtually no one wanted, and which, with some exceptions, has been closed to the public ever since the tall shops left town.
I was struck by the wastefulness of the Garry Point pier expenditure again when I read Coun. Greg Halsey-Brandt's recent missive on government spending and tax dollars. In a period of slow economic recovery, it's high time that the City of Richmond stopped spending our tax dollars on projects like the Garry Point pier and the $2-million train shed unless they have consulted the citizens of Richmond.
Terry Davis
Steveston
