I believe we need more commercial development in east Stoney Creek but some of your writers to this page appear to want retail at any cost.

Two pressing questions need to be answered, in particular, you have not considered to the following:

1. Although the proposed Wal-Mart development at Fifty Road and the QEW is said to provide $1.1 million in tax revenue to the city each year, what is the cost of the infrastructure changes which will be necessary to see this project through? Although it's apparently not in the City's plan, one expert suggested the real cost to Hamiltonians could easily climb to hundreds of millions of dollars. We cannot afford to be 'penny wise and pound foolish.'

2. If most of the estimated 900-1,000 jobs are to be part-time, minimum wage jobs without benefits, will Hamilton be any closer to tacking the poverty which overwhelms one in five people and cripples 25 percent of our City's children? Minimum wage is not a living wage. Unless someone can prove otherwise, it seems clear that the majority of the people working this proposed development will STILL be in poverty at the end of any given year.

The Hamilton Roundtable on Poverty Reduction wrote that "Hamilton has adopted a vision on an economically, socially and culturally diverse city where citizens are able to achieve their full potential through safe access to food, shelter and education.

I pray our shared vision for a better city has much more to do with making a difference than it does with just making a dollar.

John VanDuzer, Winona