Last week, I attended a business event downtown and near the end of the evening, the subject of property taxes came up. Clearly a hot button issue, right away, we all started talking at once, making comments like “property taxes are so high” and “what’s the city doing raising taxes?” and “no one likes paying property taxes.”

When at last, our clamouring voices had calmed, a woman near me said in a quiet voice, “I don’t mind paying property taxes.” That sure got our attention.

Curious, I said, “tell me more.” She explained that in her neighbourhood there’s a really good library and an even better recreation centre with a swimming pool, where her children spend a lot of time. Recently a new drinking fountain was installed so that she didn’t have to buy water in plastic bottles when she and her children got thirsty while playing ball on the newly repaired baseball diamond. That got all of us thinking.

Someone else commented that new trees had just been planted in their local park and new lighting had been installed at the entrance. A man to the left of me said that the day before when he’d driven home from work, he’d noticed that all of the potholes on his street created by winter weather had been fixed.

I still don’t like paying high property taxes. But I'm clear about why it's neccessary.

Someone else told us that their community was getting more police officers to deal with increased crime and they’d heard there were new firefighters being hired and there was a brand new bicycle path they had just ridden.

Before we left, we wandered out on the deck of Canada Place breathing in the tang of salt air coming from Coal Harbour, and watching the almost-full moon rise over Vancouver – our fairly pristine paradise. Our property taxes help to pay for this. What would we be willing to give up, I wondered?

If we want to preserve our quality of life in Metro Vancouver, we must pay property taxes so that we can continue to have: