From: crlee@ns.sympatico.ca 
  
 Evil Homer wrote: 
 > 
 > I never said they should provide me a house, but they should provide me 
 fair 
 > access to one. Most employers that are large enough to be involved with 
 > moving their employees, (ie. Royal Bank?) have their businesses in cities. 
 > Most cities I know of have houses in them. Now, take my example of CFB 
 > Shilo. If the military were to get out of the housing business, and the 
 > PMQ's were to be torn down, the only REAL housing is a half an hour drive 
 > away. Since SHilo is only about 25Km from Brandon, you are not covered for 
 > any mileage reimbursement. Now, if we were talking a base like Calgary (as 
 > in when Calgary was open), then the base is in the middle of the city. Not 
 > much of a difference than anyone else working in the city at any other job. 
  
 You make a good point.  I believe that one of the reasons the military 
 got into the housing business in the first place was because most 
 military bases were somewhat isolated from access to civilian housing. 
 That and the fact that many years ago not all servicemen were able to 
 own their own car. 
  
 Much has changed since the '30s and '40s as you can appreciate.  The 
 need for married quarters, at most bases, is far less today and of 
 course military people are far more independent both from a 
 transportation and financial point of view.  For bases, such as Shilo, 
 which are still somewhat isolated I agree that some effort ought to be 
 made to either maintain PMQs or establish a system of reasonable 
 reimbursement for distance travelled to and from work. 
  
 Carter 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)