Good intentions, but bad delivery, CRD
The Capital Regional District proposal to borrow $85 million to be used towards affordable housing is good intentions run amok.
If the CRD was actually interested in affordability rather than the optics of affordability, it would curtail its massive spending on unnecessary projects. Perhaps that would make homes more affordable when property taxes aren’t escalating at seven or eight per cent per annum as has been the case recently.
Why not take that $85 million and underwrite mortgages for doctors newly arriving in the area. There would be an immediate return on the investment to all stakeholders. $85 million for affordable housing is just a dog and pony show for politicians to make it feel like they’re doing something. Affordable housing could be readily available in this province if the government would allow housing bonds to be sold to the public and allow RRSP contributions to be paid into those housing bonds.
Investors will get a decent secure return, and there would be less cost involved for the end-user be they a renter or a potential buyer. This country is sitting on trillions of dollars in RRSPs doing nothing more than allowing banks to lend money to foreign entities.
We’re taking the cream off of our disposable incomes and placing it in a padlocked box, so to speak. Let’s make our savings work for the people, not exclusively the banks.
Housing bonds and available government land could give us homes that would likely come in less than 50 per cent of the costs of existing single-family and multifamily structures.
Affordable housing is only going to be affordable if we make it affordable not just say it’s affordable.
The CRD needs to go back to the drawing board.
Doug Coulson
Saanich
Victoria council should set better priorities
We fully understand the challenges of trying to fund all the various projects on the table at Victoria council, and that not all proposals can be fully funded.
However, the first items to be deferred for if and when our region returns to relative prosperity are projects that are not essential nor meet the demands of the majority. These, to reiterate, include expansion of bike lanes/constriction of our streets and the expense of trying to reduce speed limits.
As our once-glorious city declines into an urban ghetto, the time is right to deal with issues that deface, devalue and drive away business. Graffiti has become endemic yet there seems no effort being made to both fine perpetrators nor to clean up the results of their vandalism.
Yet I hear the cries of “we don’t have the police resources nor bylaw officers.” And every year, despite this, attempts are made to reduce police budgets, with bylaw enforcement being looked upon as an expense rather than a potential income source.
Do property owners still have the responsibility of keeping their properties free of graffiti? It seems to me they do not.
The overall message is for councils to stick with the essentials, try to deal with issues they can influence and change, and keep away from projects not supported or required by the majority of ratepayers. If the visual appearance of our region continues to decline, how can we ever expect everyone to have care and respect for the areas in which they live?
And to the self-appointed civil-rights activists, do you ever reflect on the overall harm your fallacious campaigns achieve? Since when was it appropriate, at any level, to allow drug consumption anywhere the addicted chose to shoot up?
Chris Drake
Victoria
Let’s not assume reasons for cancellation
What if the Belfry Theatre based its decision not to present The Runner, in part, on hidden threats against the safety of audience members or staff or on threats of further vandalism to the building?
Or on an abundance of caution in light of volatile times? Perhaps this is not the time for assumptions?
Dola Dubé
Saanich
That Belfry play is not our biggest concern
So all that fiddling nonsense about the storm in the Belfry tea cup. This is a moment when “The Play” is not the thing to be preoccupied with.
Given Friday’s editorial comment on the fiscal calamity that is upon us, the coming election should be our greatest concern. Premier David Eby’s NDP policies have us in a tinder box of smoking debt.
A few sparks and the troubles in far away places are insignificant.
This is an election year and more of the same mismanagement is a sure and certain recipe for unbearable misery.
It’s the economy, folks, our children’s future and a safe place to live and prosper could be in jeopardy.
Let’s get serious and concentrate on ensuring our house does not burn down.
Bats in the belfry indeed!
Russell Thompson
Victoria
Acknowledge the deaths on both sides
I think that Israel is behaving in a terrible way right now, with the amount of bombing of the Gaza Strip that it has been carrying out. Far, far too many civilians have been killed or maimed.
My issue with the protests is that they started the moment that Israel was attacked, not when Israel retaliated. More than 1,200 people were murdered in Israel, including children and babies.
Did people immediately come out and protest against what the Hamas militants had done? No, they came out and protested against Israel!
If the protestors could at least bring themselves to publicly acknowledge that so many Israelis had been murdered then perhaps their protests against Israel now would be more justifiable.
Matthew Cousins
Victoria
Be careful with words about the war in Gaza
As a child who was occasionally allowed to wander the old Colonist newsroom, I learned from professionals that words matter; hence this missive.
A recent letter praising the Belfry for cancelling a play referred to “Zionist clichés about the indigenous people of Palestine” while ignoring that the Hebrews are themselves indigenous to the region.
The letter also refers to Zionism as “disguised colonialism,” another use of Newspeak in the classic Orwellian sense. The colonials in this instance are the Arab Muslims, who conquered and colonized Northern Africa, the Iberian and Balkan Peninsulas, the Middle East and most of central Asia, converting the indigenous peoples by force maintained to the present day.
I agree that the descendants of colonials have rights, although I admit out of self-interest. My earliest ancestors reached North America as refugees from Protestant repression in the 1630s, but I am still considered non-indigenous.
It is not my intention to argue the validity of either side in the Israel/Palestinian debate at this time, but as a student of history I must protest the complete inaccuracy of Jihadist clichés about the indigenous people of Israel and revisionist account of who colonized who.
As for the accusations of “colonial genocide,” it is Hamas that demands the death of every Jew in Israel, which is unceded Hebrew land.
Don’t take my word for it. Google their founding documents, which call for the death of every Jew, everywhere. From the river to the sea is just for starters.
David Lowther
Mesachie Lake
Separate ventilation and a wonderful tenant
Re: “Direct homeowners to develop vacant space,” letter, Jan. 2.
We are the owners of a legal basement suite in Nanaimo. We were required to completely separate the heating and ventilation systems, so there is no sharing of ventilation as stated in a recent letter.
In our tenancy agreement, there is a no-smoking policy. That was nearly nine years ago.
We have had the same wonderful tenant for all of that time and only just recently did we agree on a rent increase. With a modern suite in a modern building and the landlord right above you is the best security you have to have a problem-free tenancy.
And yes it was expensive to have that work professionally done. However, it has been a worthwhile investment and we now provide housing at far below market rates.
Richard C. Parsley
Nanaimo
Saanich needs to help Camilla and her dog
I recently watched a BBC documentary on King Charles. I was shocked to see Queen Camilla walking her dog with a retractable leash.
Does she not recognize the hazard that these devices pose? I suggest Saanich council write her a letter forthwith to make her aware of the danger of these contraptions.
Frank Chester
Saanich
Let’s have specifics on what would change
Kevin Falcon, leader of the BC United party, says “you have to do things dramatically different than the way we’ve always done them.”
I would be interested in hearing/reading the dramatic differences he would undertake to resolve this, and other health-care challenges.
I have seen/heard nothing except complaints; zero tangible ideas or a plan to inform citizens of exactly what he would do.
John Stevenson
Victoria
Individual rights are under threat
Premier David Eby appears embarked upon a crusade of social re-engineering. Historically, Western democracies sought balance between individual rights and those of society at large.
Eby disrupted that balance by infringing, with little or no consultation and debate, upon individual rights.
Societal interests in many ways are paramount over individual rights. For example, public health directives are necessary, particularly during an epidemic. There are obvious benefits from Medicare.
However, when the system fails, individuals need access to private care.
Real estate investment is being marginalized. Speculation taxes are unfair to those who, for whatever reason, own a second home. Property acquired for short-term rental, perhaps a main source of financial support, is now a financial liability.
Rental vacancy rates according to Canada Mortgage and Housing were 1.1% in Vancouver in 2008, the year before AirBnb establishment. Short-term rentals did not cause the housing crisis.
However, they provide a scapegoat, hiding decades of housing mismanagement by governments.
Indigenous reconciliation is necessary, and intent admirable. However, to address the many wrongs of the past, individual rights should not be ignored. Safe passage, use of protected anchorages of inland waterways, and coastal private properties are at risk.
Legislation restructuring our local communities, not allowing consultative process, nor even input of municipal planning committees, infringes individual rights.
Most planning will be done by the provincial government which will also provide the designs.
James Stockdill
Oak Bay
Before the show, a way to improve it
The only thing missing from Saturday’s excellent performance of Jesus Christ Superstar was the pre-show announcement of: “For Christ sake, turn off your cellphones.”
Bill Carere
Victoria
It’s a health concern, so don’t blame the mayor
Re: “Questionable decisions at City Hall,” letter, Dec. 22.
Yes, the Centennial Fountain in Victoria must go. But this is one decision that cannot be blamed on City Hall. This is a higher order decision concerned with health. Water that accumulates in the basin must be regarded as medically hazardous and capable of passing on a variety of diseases.
Hence public health dictates that the fountain must go, no matter that it happens to be the design centre of the whole square.
Substituting a spray park for kids, as in Beacon Hill Park, with clean, fresh water jetting out to be immediately drained away, may be safe, but is obviously at odds with the original design intention which was to provide inviting seating for relaxing.
The water in the basin serves as a visual relaxation and protects the obelisks from graffiti — while simultaneously being regarded as a health danger.
And while it is delightful to blame the mayor for everything, this is one pending item that cannot fairly be laid at her door.
What to do?
Joe Harvey
Victoria
Clean air, please, in supportive housing
Why do seniors have to live with smoky air in supportive housing when they signed a non-smoking rental agreement?
When a new building opened in 2017, B.C. Housing made it clear to the non-profit running the site that it must be non-smoking.
The air is full of smoke constantly and no rules are enforced as the answer is “we have a non-eviction policy so we cannot enforce.”
The tenants smoking know that no consequences exist, so what is the point of us signing a non-smoking rental agreement? Secondhand smoke is just as toxic to be breathing in constantly as smoking.
When will the time come with long-term renting when all are expected to follow the same rules outlined on the rental agreement?
I am tired of excuses for not holding people accountable to their actions. I expect non-profits to do the job B.C. Housing asked, which is run buildings with clean air, for all the seniors.
Jahnava Moore
Saanich
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