Discriminating between the people

The Times editorial of May 4 was very fair, balanced and well written. However, the Gozo Business Chamber feels that a few important points were overlooked.

For all the people commuting between Malta and Gozo, the ferry service is considered as an extension of the road from Cirkewwa in Malta to Mgarr in Gozo. Now, all roads in Malta are available to commuters during any time of the day and night.

The exception being only when a particular road is being repaired or dug up for new services to be installed.

For commuters between the two islands it is already a problem that they cannot avail themselves of the use of this "road" at any time they want since one has to follow the ferry schedule.

There is then the potential problem of finding a long queue at either end and having to wait, sometimes for hours on end, to do the crossing.

This apart from the other fact that because of bad weather the ferry service may be suspended for any period of time, which the Gozo Channel Company deems necessary.

Another aspect which one has to bear in mind is the fact that when the government spends millions of liri on the construction and maintenance of roads, the bill is met by the taxpayer, irrespective of whether that taxpayer is making use of that road or not. In this case what the government and the Gozo Channel want to do is force an increase in fares selectively on people commuting between Gozo and Malta.

We, as a business chamber, do not want to go into the merits of why and how the Gozo Channel is losing money since we believe that the government has enough experts to do that for it.

All we want is that the democratic government of Malta, which now is also a member of the European Union, does not discriminate between its citizens.