Make health a federal matter

Re: “An opportunity to enact real health-care reform,” Jan. 18.

This is truly is a subject that is inadequately handled at the provincial level alone.

How do we get around the issue arising from sophisticated medical technology enabling more people, than ever before in history, to live longer and move around the country more, but who do not get uniform care because of diverse, health-care budgets?

This population, surely, ought to be able to expect a uniform health care system, no matter what the province. This system is believed by most of us to be superior to United States style, where every single item is charged out to patients and for those patients with the bucks.

We are not looking for that kind of change. Reform in public, not private, health care (also, in policing) would be to make it a federal, not provincial, responsibility.

One pocket. One management.

Redner Jones

Victoria

Jobs, wealth hijacked by Harper’s policies

On the proposed oil pipeline to the B.C. coast, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said, “It is in our interests ... that we diversify our exports, particularly our energy exports.’’

Oil is a wonderful raw material from which a vast and diverse range of useful value-added products can be made. Yet all Harper can think of is selling the raw material, to foreigners no less.

Is that his idea of diversity? He insists that we pass up the chance to create thousands and thousands of Canadian jobs producing those products right here in Canada.

He prattles on about creating a few temporary jobs building this black hole of a pipeline, down which the Chinese can drain our wealth.

When that job is done I suppose our Canadian pipeline builders can go on unemployment or welfare. If there is any hijacking of Canadian jobs and wealth to be done, it is perfectly clear to Canadians that our own prime minister is the resident expert in that sad business.

Marty Hykin

Victoria

Create a heritage fund to deal with the spills

Enbridge and their front men in Ottawa (Stephen Harper and Joe Oliver) must think us coastal “radicals” are dumber than a bag of hammers if they think we will buy off on their Northern Gateway Pipeline.

The environmental concerns threatening our fragile river systems and coastline are well documented. I feel B.C. is being treated like a Third World country by some colonial superpower.

What are the benefits for B.C. to transport bitumen from Alberta to the markets in Asia? They are minimal as Enbridge thinks they can hand out trinkets to native bands along the proposed route and provide up to 2,000 permanent jobs for the rest of the province — half of which will be in Kitimat.

Here in B.C., we will assume all the risk from this project and in return Alberta gets most of the economic benefits.

Alberta needs B.C. as a partner to get their heavy oil to the West Coast. We should share equally in the Asian revenues with our province to the east.

Alberta should provide a heritage fund for B.C. to provide rainy day money for oil spills (they will happen) so we can afford to clean up the messes. Remember, Harper is initiating legislation in Ottawa to limit Enbridge’s liability on this pipeline so we need a good insurance policy.

I hope the Northern Gateway pipeline never happens but if it does then let’s run it down through Burnaby where there are two million people who can help clean up the inevitable oil spills.

John Townson

Victoria

Don’t tell the enemy how behind we are

Re: “What do we have that anyone would want?” letter, Jan. 18.

When I was in officer training at HMCS Stadacona, in Halifax, a bunch of us found a document labelled “Secret” in a drawer in one of the classrooms. It described some equipment which I had read all about in the Popular Science magazine years before.

I asked my brother, a senior officer in the Navy, why the document would be labelled “Secret” when there was nothing secret about the equipment described. He informed me that the secret was that the Canadian Navy was still using the equipment.

Robert Radford

Duncan

Steel posts and cables would catch Malahat cars

Since moving to Victoria, living near the start of the Malahat near Goldstream Park, and reading all the information in your stories, I find one huge neglect. No one suggests steel poles and high tension cables to restrict vehicles to their lanes.

Why do we talk about ongoing huge taxpayer costs of increased RCMP presence, which will add jobs to the workforce, but will not solve the ongoing carnage. We cannot do anything to eliminate the Low-IQ tailgaters.

Police officers cannot be everywhere at all times, they have lunch breaks, they cost a ton, and they will not stop health-related accidents and crossing of the centre lines by distracted drivers on their phones, drinking or smoking.

All the talk of not enough room for centre concrete pillars never offers the other alternative of steel pipes down the centre line with high-tension cables to restrict vehicles going over the lines.

This takes up far less space than concrete pillars and is much less costly than 10 or 20 more RCMP patrol cars annually, which probably has no hope of being financially accepted anyway by our cash-strapped governments.

Does anyone really think the government will increase ongoing policing budgets by the millions for one small stretch of highway? There are lots of dangerous roadways besides the Malahat that the government has to deal with.

Start being realistic everyone, or be prepared for no change at all.

Ross Tapping

Victoria

A solution to the Japanese debris

Given that the gigantic mass of floating debris that washed off Japan’s shores from the quake and tsunami last year is now washing onto our coast, we should be mobilizing our net-fishing fleets – both commercial and native — to capture whatever is practicable, wherever possible.

This can be offloaded to our freight docks to be recycled by the appropriate organizations.

With proper funding by all levels of government under emergency programs — and make no mistake, this is an environmental emergency of historic proportion — this crisis can be turned into an employment opportunity at a time when it is desperately needed in our coastal towns.

J.D. Mahovlic

Victoria

Downtown Victoria does not feel safe

A few days ago I have read a letter about safety in Victoria compared to Mexican towns. I have to say I was happy to know that I was not lonely in my concerns.

I have been in Ensenada, a Mexican town close to the border with the United States, and I have also lived for most of my life in a Russian town the size of Victoria. The Russian town I lived in was not the most safe town on Earth, but its downtown is heaven compared to Victoria’s.

Here I have to plan my way so that I avoid beggars and addicts and predators and get to places with as little involvement with aggressive, frightening people as possible.

I look around and all I see is people with clearly visible mental issues (potentially dangerous to public), beggars and drug addicts. I also was told not to make eye contact to that type of people for they may consider it to be a threat and attack me.

So I wear sunglasses or keep my eyes down and I’m learning a lot about Victoria’s sidewalks. I don’t think that should be the way for people to experience Victoria’s downtown.

I guess my letter may sound painful to many Victorians but the truth shouldn’t be hushed just because somebody finds it unflattering.

Elena Yovovich

Victoria

We are all guilty of greedy actions

I agree with the writer of a recent letter. Greed run amok often harms many people. However, before pointing too many condemning fingers, it is useful to remember the definition of greed.

The New World Dictionary defines it as, “excessive desire for getting or having, esp. wealth; desire for more than one needs or deserves; avarice; cupidity.”

Aren’t we all guilty? As with most things, it is a matter of degree.

Ruth Robinson

Victoria

Relocating deer just moves a problem

As someone who grew up on a farm, I was exposed to some basic farming principles — slaughtering of animals being one of them. While taking the life is a hard thing to do, it was, and is a necessity.

With that being said, I’d like to add my opinion regarding culling or relocating deer.

In our society we have an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality. I don’t blame anyone — it’s just who we are. We rarely consider the problems created when we flush our toilets, take out the garbage, or tranquilize and move hundreds of deer to Sooke or somewhere else.

This suggestion doesn’t solve the problem, it just relocates the problem.

If everyone had to physically kill an animal to put it on the table, I’d wager there would be plenty more vegetarians. Killing is a horrible thing to do that I don’t take lightly — I personally can’t eat anything I’ve slaughtered until roughly a month has passed.

But killing deer it is not “inhumane”, as some may call it. Nor is it an insult to the homeless to suggest they eat locally culled deer meat.

If the city did cull and butcher, I’ll personally buy a few pounds of the meat — I’m sure they’re better for me than the hormone-pumped, grain-fed meat that I’m used to at the grocery store.

Paul Lefebvre

Victoria

Move some of the deer, the cougars might follow

There has been much discussion as to the pros and cons of living with a deer population as our neighbours.

Personally I have had close encounters occasionally when a deer has refused to look both ways when suddenly deciding to cross the road in front of me. I have also had the odd time when a deer decided to make a dessert out of some of my flowers.

On Cordova Bay golf course there are around 200 deer living quite happily. I would not like to see a cull take place, but something occurred to me as I held up on a golf shot the other day to let a deer wander across my line.

We move black bears and cougars out into the wild when they become a nuisance. We have Strathcona Provincial Park on our little island, which has 250,000 hectares of wilderness. To me an organized system of sedating a certain number of deer each year and moving them to the park would alleviate the problem.

Who knows, perhaps in time our local cougars will get the message and move themselves north to the park where they will find a better natural diet than cats and dogs and stop endangering the lives of small children.

Derek Rennie

Victoria

WestJet should look at a Canadian plane

What are the executives at WestJet thinking? It boggles the mind to contemplate that this Canadian-based airline would even consider purchasing anything but Toronto-built Bombardier Q400 turboprops for its new short-haul regional airline.

As of Oct. 31, Bombardier reports 412 orders of the Q400 of which 383 have been delivered. This reduction in the backlog of orders provides WestJet with the opportunity to obtain prime spots on the assembly line to meet their ambitious launch schedule.

In addition, the optics of WestJet purchasing aircraft outside of Canada, when we have the capabilities to meet the airlines needs right here at home, aren’t good.

Think about this: A Canadian based airline, flying citizens from Cranbrook, Thompson, Man., and Timmins, Ont. around in an plane that was built some place other than Canada. That would not be a good business decision.

If WestJet wants to launch a regional airline in our country, then it must purchase Made in Canada turboprops.

Roland Kiehne

President

CAW Local 112

Toronto