Dear Editor:
I am responding to your editorial about refugee claimants losing access to "free" health care (It's a matter of compassion and common sense, Our View, Burnaby NOW, June 20.)
You are missing the point that the Canadian government is facing some tough choices balancing the budget, in particular, an aging population, which increases stress on the entitlement programs, while currently, ongoing economic contraction reduces the tax base. Simply put there are not enough people paying taxes to support all the programs we are so used to taking for granted.
It is a tough choice. Maintain health care and education standards, ease of access for disabled and elderly, support for low-income citizenry and accept a stream of refugee claimants from across the world. Cutting defence programs will put thousands of Canadians out of work.
So obviously government makes the cuts where it hurts the least. Or maybe Canadians are willing to pay more taxes? While we are already struggling to meet our ends? I don't think so.
By the way, how could anyone consider a "refugee" from a European Union country to be a legitimate claimant is beyond comprehension. Hungary is a modern democratic society, not without its share of problems, but in no way comparable to Somalia or Iraq, for example.
Alec Kravchenko, Burnaby
