Instead of byelection, pick from prior vote
Why is any democratic elected council calling a byelection because of one councillor’s bad remark, whereby they decide to quit?
It would be cheaper, saving the taxpayers’ time and money, to just call the next-highest-vote candidate from the previous election to see if they would be interested in the job.
If not, go down the list until one is found.
Colin H. Cameron
James Bay
High praise for citizenship via Zoom
Re: “Citizenship demands more than a click,” letter, March 21.
Last year I became a Canadian citizen via a Zoom ceremony and found it moving and intimate, hardly citizenship-by-mouse-click. It was a memorable conclusion to the years-long process of becoming a citizen.
Although given the option to attend an in-person ceremony, I chose Zoom. On the day, after a final private interview with an immigration official, I was ushered into a Zoom room filled with soon-to-be new citizens.
Zoom backgrounds were prohibited, so we were all invited — virtually — into each others’ homes.
It was magical. We were born in different countries, but on this day we were Canadian.
Many decorated with Canadian flags. Some wore traditional dress of the country of their birth as they celebrated joining the country of their choice.
Many had family members crowded behind them, while others confirmed they had champagne on hand for after the swearing-in.
Ages ranged from new parents cradling a days-old infant to the elderly couple who held hands throughout the process.
It was a view of new Canadians that wouldn’t have been possible if we’d met in a courtroom.
While different from the in-person citizenship swearing-in I once attended, this ceremony was not diminished in power or significance for being on Zoom. And we all sang the national anthem.
Days later, thanks to the Zoom ceremony, I voted in Canada for the first time, participating in the governance of the place I now call home.
Vicki Küng
Victoria
Substance addiction can happen to anyone
Re: “An epidemic that matters: The explosion of drug use,” commentary, March 30.
I applaud and am most heartened by the eloquent commentary of Dr. David Forrest, and letter from the day before.
Both convey an educated and merciful comprehension of the complexity and very humanness of substance addiction, and vulnerability.
Addiction is a painkiller. As the song says: “There but for fortune go you or I.”
Connie MacDonald
Victoria.
Mental health, drug use must be priorities
I completely agree with the writer who called for the resurrection of a mental health facility. Perhaps this would be a better way for our government to spend the surplus they are looking to use to provide support in the community.
What better way to make a difference that would affect all of us? It would serve as a place to treat those with mental-health issues that are causing the proliferation of crime we find on our streets, especially downtown.
I remember when places like Riverview were shut down, leaving all those patients with nowhere to go, with many living on the streets.
I remember the community outrage without the ability to stop it. It boggles the mind that “the powers that be” felt that these people would find a way to look after themselves without the much-needed support and treatment.
A facility could also provide support for those with drug addictions. We all know the extent of this problem and all the lives lost.
This issue stretches the police resources with all the calls they receive to handle overdose cases.
I avoid going anywhere in the downtown area, where unprovoked attacks are happening all too often. I don’t feel safe there.
Providing housing to provide a place for them to live is only temporary and has proven to bring crime with them. Residents close to the vicinity of these housing locations suffer threats, abuse and theft.
Let’s find a solution that will make big strides in helping those that require help, and in turn, make our streets safer for everyone.
I urge all levels of government to take action to make a difference.
Emily Nelson
Victoria
Preferred pool site has been determined
Recently, the Crystal Pool Replacement Project was allocated $1.78 million to restart planning. Among other items outlined in the plan presented to Victoria’s committee of the whole on March 9, studies are to be done on cost of construction, location, features and the impacts of four possible sites.
Taxpayers voting in a referendum may recommend one site, or rank all four, but their input will be “non-binding.”
In 2018, all necessary studies and several public consultations were completed, and a comprehensive building design submitted, for a site on the southwest corner of Central Park. The project was ” shovel-ready.”
Then, “intense lobbying by a group of residents sought changes to the project, including its siting and design.” Further work was done, then COVID put a hold on progress.
In 2020, in a report to Victoria’s committee of the whole, six sites were considered, with the advantages and disadvantages listed for each site.
Of the six, three had drawbacks. Of the three others, all located in Central Park, the site on the southwest corner again “received the highest degree of analysis of any prospective location, and was the site identified consistently through the initial two-year period of public engagement and technical analysis.”
I do not understand why, if taxpayer input will be non-binding, council does not go, now, with the preferred site, the southwest corner of Central Park, with no further costly studies and waste of time.
Pauline McCullagh
Victoria
Beware of Victoria’s faulty parking meters
I love Victoria’s Chinatown, and once every two weeks, I go there for dim sum. Two weeks ago, I failed my parking IQ test when I tried to pay with my credit card. I struggled with the command “Pull out your card quickly,” followed by “Leave the card in,” and got a parking ticket.
The other day I collected enough coins for several hours of parking and went to Chinatown again. I parked on Herald Street, fed the parking meter with quarters until it reached the $5 limit and refused to take any more quarters.
I walked around Chinatown using my four-wheel walker, got espresso, and bought a Hawaiian summer shirt and a DVD in a second-hand store.
When I came to my car, I had a nicely printed parking fine ticket telling me my time had expired. Tough luck; my new parking strategy failed and did not work.
When I looked around, I realized every car within walking distance of my parking meter had the same nicely printed ticket behind its wipers. It was my parking meter that did not work.
Victoria should reprogram the parking meters so that the faulty ones would say, “Beware, I am stealing!” instead of “Pull out your card quickly” and “Leave your card in.”
Look for an artificial-intelligence program if you don’t have any other options.
Adolf Ceska
Victoria
Thanks, poop scoopers in Mount Doug Park
A special shout-out to the volunteers at PKOLS (Mount Douglas Park) who regularly patrol the trails picking up and removing dog poop that dog owners (for reasons unknown) leave (bagged and unbagged) on the trails or the edge of the trails.
Thank all of you for making the park nicer for all users by taking on this unpleasant, and what should be unnecessary, task.
Kim Jordheim
Victoria
Police chief should say ‘More taxes, please’
Every city department head wants council to cut the budgets of other departments.
Rather than saying “Cut his, not mine,” and whipping up public reaction, Victoria’s police chief should announce that he’s willing to pay more property tax, and call on all citizens to tell city council that they, too, will gladly pay more so we can have all the policing, paving and many other services we want, need and demand.
Gerald Rotering
James Bay
Seniors an asset with friendship and energy
I feel it is important to recognize the hidden benefits that seniors provide for society.
For me they can provide friendship and love energy. They also give something called life force, which they pass along to younger people.
They are not a burden but an asset, and I hope they know this. I have contributed more than 1,000 hours of volunteer time with seniors and they can really help to make life worthwhile.
Sean Murray
Victoria
Oxford dictionary sides with Victoria
Re: “Use proper English on those new signs,” letter, March 30.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “slow” can be used as an adjective or an adverb, and it gives “go slow” as an example of the latter.
Jeremy B. Tatum
Victoria
The price of lettuce — and yes, we were warned
Some 30 years ago I ran for mayor in Central Saanich, on the platform of protecting the ALR and limiting population growth, on the grounds that relying on produce from elsewhere would sooner or later come back to bite us, and greater housing density would lead to higher taxes.
Since then the Central Saanich population has increased by 20 per cent, and property taxes by 30 per cent in constant dollars. Lettuce has gone from 40 cents a head to $6.
There are two kinds of people: those who say, “I told you so,” and those who don’t. I’m one of the former.
Ian Cameron
Brentwood Bay
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