David (Wally Martin) VS Goliath (Langley Township)

You Heard It Here First!
Remember the posting we put on last week re Traveller's Hotel owner Wally Martin's concerns about the Tourism Tax increase proposed by Langley City and Langley Township? Well we told you it wasn't over. It Ain't. Get a load of these attached PDF documents as a result of Wally's delegation last week to Township Council.

The last two pages of the attached PDF document is a letter from Langley Township addressed to BC Minister of Finance Carole Taylor. It was clearly sent as a rebuttal to Wally's original complaint letter discussed in our last posting and Wally's assertion that he has a majority "NO" vote from the hotels in Langley Township. Did Township Council order this rebuttal? When? And is it right for a rebuttal letter to be sent by the Township in the middle of a Bylaw approval process? Methinks Not! (Kind of makes a farce of the whole Bylaw process, doesn't it?)

The first two pages of the attached PDF document is a strong response to the Township's letter written by Wally Martin's lawyer. He asks for a retraction and an apology because they feel that the intent of the Township's letter was "to demean Mr. Martin's contribution to the process and to communicate to the Minister that he is a marginal player whose views deserve limited weight." Unbelievable! What a turn of events!

Monday's Township Council meeting should be very interesting as Council will vote on the Tourism Tax increase. Wally is not giving up. He, his wife Sharon and his son, Michael (who is a Chartered Accountant) have all made application to appear as delegations to Council. So have some of the head honcho's of the Chamber of Commerce (who are strongly supporting the new tax. Gee, I wonder if this is because they're getting ready to dump the Langley Visitor Center/Tourism duties that the Township has paid them to do for the last 10 years or so?) In light of all this, Monday's meeting should not be missed - it will be televised (Channel 4 at 7 pm).

Will David defeat Goliath? Stay tuned. We're rooting for David!...