Celebrating a special day in a terrible way
To observe Clean Air Day people should do things like walk, ride a bicycle or horse, maybe get carted around in a pedi-cab, or just stay home. If possible, show you really do care by not adding to the exhaust pollution for at least one day.
Some people rode the bus that day instead of driving their own vehicle simply because it was free. It defies logic.
What was the reasoning behind offering free bus rides? Was it a ploy to show people how great riding public transit is with the hope they will give up their cars? Good luck with that.
On the same day, two cruise ships arrived, the earliest one at 3:30 p.m. From then until their departure at midnight all we breathed was exhaust fumes that smelled like an oil furnace.
We are constantly breathing in little particulates, black oily soot blankets everything and the vehicular traffic increases greatly when cruise ships are in dock.
They are a real tourist attraction. The helicopters add to this lovely mix.
According to the Government of Canada website, “this day is to recognize how important good air quality is to our health, our environment and the economy.”
Placing the word “economy” last does not fool me. From what I observed on this Clean Air Day, the description should read, “This day is to recognize how important the economy is for destroying our good air quality, our health and our environment.”
Penny Linders
Victoria
Let’s have roadwork at better times
It’s bewildering to see the way the City of Victoria and local municipalities schedule roadwork and the related infrastructure.
Why does it have to be done on weekdays when the majority of people are trying to get to work, get to medical appointments, catch ferries, conduct business, and just generally move around?
Why not schedule this sort of work at night? There are excellent electric lights made that would solve any illumination problem.
The financial and psychological cost of clogging roadways when they are needed the most is apparently not being taken into account by local governments.
Bruce Davies
Victoria
Byelection’s top issue: The Malahat highway
The most important issue of the Langford-Juan de Fuca byelection campaign, besides our inadequate health-care system, is the need for a four-lane highway all the way to the top of the Malahat.
Recently, my wife and I were planning to visit the Malahat Skywalk. We got on the Trans-Canada Highway at Millstream Road and got off at Leigh Road. The traffic was backed up to Millstream Road.
This is a constant feature on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Traffic is also backed up on the West Shore Parkway and prevents access to the residents in the Goldstream area.
Almost all the accidents and subsequent long delays are in Goldstream Park between Tunnel Hill and the West Shore Parkway. These delays put a lot of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, as cars sit there idling, waiting to get on their way.
This is hurting our economy, especially for the Malahat First Nation, who are planning a film studio, and rumour has it, a motor speedway and RV park. This would require a four-lane highway in order to make these plans successful.
I would like all the candidates to address this issue.
Norman Arden
Langford
Natural areas first, not housing stock
Re: “Gulf Islands lose their protection,” commentary, June 5.
The Islands Trust is one of the most democratic, forward looking government protections ever enacted. Kudos to the 1972 NDP Dave Barrett government.
We were full-time Galiano residents and shareholders in a large cooperative corporation on North Galiano from 1984-2022, so witnessed the full brunt of clearcut logging and development pressures. We know and were part of the story.
I urge the current Islands Trust and NDP government and the current Islands Trust Council to pause, take a deep breath and rethink the pressures to dispense with these careful and necessary restraints that the Islands Trust imposes on expanded development which is almost always at the cost of the natural environment and its “amenities.”
The Trust is even more necessary now than it was in 1972. Take stock.
These unique islands in the rare Coastal Douglas Fir biogeoclimatic zone ought to be considered a World Heritage Site, not an easily expanded affordable housing possibility.
Rethink. Preserve and Protect.
Barbara Moore
Vancouver
New financial ideas needed in Canada
Here we go again. The central bank’s only tool to control the flow of money in the economy seems to be interest rates.
Unfortunately, it puts the burden on borrowers and transfers that benefit to savers. It becomes a debtor’s trap.
Raising rates is itself inflationary, so it’s like trying to put out a fire by dumping more fuel on. Imagine if we tried a different approach that did not have people sink further into debt.
For example, instead of raising rates we could force shorter amortizations on mortgages and loans for both new applications as well as during renewal. People with credit lines would have to repay a minimum amount each month.
You would be faced with higher costs but the benefit would remain with you.
Likewise, the federal government could temporarily raise marginal tax rates to remove money out of the economy. It could even allot the money to an RRSP-like account with some limitations on how quickly it could be redeemed.
There’s undoubtedly many more ideas out there that would accomplish the same goals. As the saying goes, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
It’s time to think outside of the box.
Matt McGeachie
Victoria
We don’t need more jobs, we need more workers
Re: “Decision delayed on open-net fish farms,” June 7.
The fish farming industry’s supposed concern about possible lost jobs may be missing the point. We have a widespread labour shortage, not a job shortage.
An example of this is as close as B.C. Ferries’ decision to shut down the Pacific Buffet, partly due to an employee shortage. A lack of staff is also responsible for the increasing number of ferry cancellations.
Many industries now face similar challenges finding workers at many levels.
This new reality of widespread labour shortages turns conventional wisdom about the need to create more jobs on its head.
It will take some getting used to, but it looks like it will be with us for some time. Simply put, we need more workers, not more jobs.
Blaise Salmon
Shawnigan Lake
We have a long way to go to be like Mumbai
Re: “Higher density will bring more people here,” Letter, June 8.
The letter said Victoria could end up like Mumbai.
Population: Greater Victoria about 400,000; Mumbai 21 million.
Made for a wonderful hilarious laugh. Exaggeration as per Ralph Waldo Emerson: ‘Tis a rule of manners to avoid exaggeration.
John Vanden Heuvel
Victoria
Dogs can help protect the park’s plants
For the past five years, I have hiked up PKOLS with my dog off-leash about four times per week. It is fantastic exercise for both of us and it is my bliss.
Like many people of my age group (60s and up), I now require hiking poles on steeper portions and uneven ground to stabilize my ankles and knees and avoid injury.
It is impossible to use poles while holding a leash. By imposing an on-leash requirement, Saanich council will effectively discriminate against me and others who require a mobility aid, depriving us of the greatest pleasure of the day.
As for sensitive, endangered flora on PKOLS, dogs off leash are a deterrence to deer, effectively protecting the plants from being eaten. I have never seen a deer on PKOLS.
A local horticulturalist has told me that the proliferation of deer in urban Victoria is diminishing the local native flora. I can attest to this myself, as deer eat the camas buds and fawn lilies and other native plants in my garden.
Similar to the wolves in Yellowstone, which were a boon to native flora by deterring elk from stream valleys, the off-leash dogs in PKOLS are actually a benefit to native plants on PKOLS.
Finally, I participate in a monthly clean up at PKOLS with members of HappyDogs. It is surprising how little garbage and poop there actually is, but Saanich could do a better job of providing more garbage bins.
Liane O’Grady
Victoria
Put our biosolids to work as an energy source
Re: “Biosolids could be headed to Richmond and to quarry near Nanaimo,” May 31.
Biosolids can be handled by any company that burns wood waste products for dry kilns and/or power generation with steam. It works well, especially if the biosolids are blended with the wood waste.
West Kelowna trucks its biosolids to Ashcroft to be dumped there. Kelowna uses its waste to blend into garden soils.
Biosolids should not be looked at as a waste product, but as a byproduct to be used in the best manner, such as to produce steam for production of dry wood or making electric power.
Most of northern Europe collects all its waste wood products to be used for power generation and heating. So, look to pulp mills and large sawmills for your contract to take care of your problem.
Jorgen Hansen
Retired steam engineer
North Saanich
Careful when walking dogs in the extreme heat
People need to be mindful that the pavement can become hot enough that the pads on their pet’s feet blister and burn, making it torture for them.
It can become so hot that we humans would not be able to put our shoeless feet on it for even a few seconds, yet we expect our pet to.
Some people just don’t think about this. It’s the hottest time of the day and they want to get out and enjoy the heat and take the dog.
Please walk them before the sun is out in full force, or after the sun goes down. Dogs have no sweat glands; they cool off by panting and are very susceptible to heat stroke, as well.
For the love of your pet, don’t take them for walks and expose them to this kind of pain. Use your common sense, for their sake and the love of them.
Jackie Lerik
Victoria
Parking helps more people visit downtown
The parking lot off Wharf Street is one of the few where tourists can park an RV downtown to see the city. Or the disabled who have mobility problems.
Take away these and they will not come downtown. Not everyone can afford a nice waterfront hotel when they visit.
Wendy Sellars
Sidney
Cleaning up downtown is only superficial
Victoria councillors announcing that they want to clean up and beautify downtown makes me think of the phrase “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” which means “making superficial or cosmetic changes to a product in a futile effort to disguise its fundamental failings.”
Diane Ball
James Bay
A call for Victoria to clean up its streets
I’m 75 and have lived in Victoria for 65 of those years. What do I think of downtown Victoria?
It’s a zoo of every kind of drugs on Douglas Street between Fisgard and Humboldt. And on Pandora Avenue from Cook to Blanshard.
I expect city council to do something about this ongoing problem while wildly spending my tax dollar on irrelevant issues.
Colin Cameron
Victoria
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