Here's an excellent "Letter to the Editor" that David had published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix yesterday.

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I want to show support for city council’s decision to approve funding for the interchange at the Stonegate development not because I think another Wal-Mart in Saskatoon is a good thing, but because it will give the overworked parking enforcers in the downtown area a much-needed break.

The coming of a Wal-Mart on Saskatoon’s southeast side, with its obligatory vast parking lot, will allow thousands of drivers a chance to avoid paying parking fees and tickets in downtown because soon there really won’t be any reason to shop there, anyway.

Why? Because those Wal-Marts will have driven most downtown merchants out of business or allowed the owners an opportunity to have their buildings razed for many uses such as yet another condo development, another parking lot, or another provincial or federal government office building.

Of course another reason those downtown businesses might have been forced to close is Wal-Mart’s unfair and unethical business practices.

Oh yes, I support city council’s approval of the new Wal-Mart development. Now the parking enforcers can spend their days as greeters at that store. I guess another Wal-Mart in Saskatoon will be a good thing, after all.

David Creelman