Sounds of summer can be soothing, too
Re: “Oak Bay to bring in gradual ban on gas-powered garden equipment,” May 26.
While I read of Oak Bay council’s ban on gas-powered small engines, I couldn’t help but wax nostalgic about how I have always found the neighbourhood drone of others cutting their lawns somewhat comforting. Perhaps it is a symbol of normalcy, or perhaps I have become an anachronism.
What has become normal, sadly, is the fact that most municipal governments have been captured by activist ideology. It was disheartening to learn the council vote was unanimous in favour of the residential ban. Not a single councillor had the intellectual rigour nor depth of character to voice concern that the ban might be authoritarian overreach. Perhaps we do get the government we deserve.
If I might paraphrase the old adage: “They enacted a ban and I said nothing. When they came for me there was no one left to say anything.”
Thomas Maxwell
Victoria
Transition to electric won’t be immediate
Re: “Oak Bay to bring in gradual ban on gas-powered garden equipment,” May 26.
Kevin Bunting of Island Horticultural Services says that it would cost him more than $20,000 to change all his equipment from gas to electric. He may well be right, depending on the size of his business. However, the following points should be noted:
1. Oak Bay has provided a four-year phase-in period to facilitate the transition.
2. The investment would be a tax write-off.
3. Any cost would be defrayed by the expenditure on fuel, which, at more than $2 a litre, is exorbitantly high.
4. All of us, including garden companies, have to be environmentally responsible.
Francis Landy
Victoria
Corded tools even better than battery power
When you change from gas to electric, go corded instead of battery. I’ve been doing it for more than 50 years, and if you buy commercial-grade corded stuff, it lasts forever!
Equipment with cords is much cheaper and most residences have an outside power source that’s free to the professionals. Without batteries, this equipment is not only much lighter, but doesn’t need charging or chargers that adds to costs.
And most importantly, corded equipment is way more environmentally friendly and, after all, isn’t that the main goal of all of this?
Lastly, don’t get hung up on dragging a cord around. When mowing, if you keep the cord to the side that you’ve just finished cutting and work away from it, it doesn’t get in the way.
Message to urban farmers addicted to the pipeline: Get off the gas. At this stage in human history, it’s the right thing to do. Go low noise, and carbon-free.
Dave Secco
Victoria
We need a national strategy on pandemics
Thank you for the excellent editorial on the COVID response by our governments, and the leadership required. I have been dismayed by the lack of “best practices” to deal with the pandemic. While the federal government committed to vaccination of federal employees, they missed the target of the most vulnerable people in our society. The most vulnerable are known by our health system. There are many seniors over 65 who have multiple health issues also, and there are younger people who have serious health issues.
Next time, let’s hope that government will mandate vaccinations for all vulnerable people, and allow all others to decide how they want to deal with the next virus. It seems we need to impose vaccines on some, to avoid overloading our medical system and hospitals with sick, vulnerable people.
Indeed, we need an expert panel to assemble the evidence and map out the best way forward. And do it. Leadership is required, but who will lead?
Phil Harrison
Comox
B.C. using Indigenous cover in museum plan
Re: “B.C. government faces hard sell with $789M museum project,” May 26.
Les Leyne was right in calling out the lack of transparency in the NDP’s decision to tear down the museum, but I think the real issue is far more shocking than that. Apparently, despite their claims to the contrary, the NDP is not more culturally enlightened and more determined to right the wrongs done to Indigenous people in B.C. than the rest of us. In fact, it now appears that they were simply using the outrage about the atrocities done to Indigenous children in the residential schools as a convenient and timely rationale for a decision that was based more on the museum’s structural flaws than on its denial of history.
And to think that Premier Horgan had the gall to say that he regretted that the decision had been turned into a “political football.” Now we know that it was politics at its worst all along.
Elizabeth Causton
Victoria
More family MD residency spots needed
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. assured us in a letter to the editor that they are maintaining high standards. I believe that. The B.C. government claims they are doing everything they can to recruit new family doctors. That I don’t believe.
If that is the case, why did 2,000 fully qualified new doctors not get a medical residency position for family medicine in Canada last year? To practise medicine in B.C. and to maintain high standards, all new doctors, Canadian-trained or not, must complete a medical residency. This really boils down to two years of supervision by more senior doctors, as they begin their medical careers. During that time, they are working in both hospitals and clinics as physicians.
So why, in 2021, were only 172 residency positions in family medicine offered in our province? This year only 174 positions are being offered in B.C., an increase of two. The B.C. government does not understand that we need an adequate number of residency positions to meet our provincial needs.
Are we going to break the bank paying for these young doctors? The answer is no. The first year of residency pays $55,000 and the second $61,000.
The safeguard of high standards for doctors is in place, plus there are many doctors seeking to begin working in family medicine. Why then is the B.C. government not simply making that happen?
Bruce Kennedy
Victoria
Good Samaritan saved the day
Recently, a friend of mine and I decided to walk to the summit of John Dean Park. He has one lung; I, at age 81, have genetically deformed feet. We left the parking lot and followed the steep ascent on the gravel road that circled bend after bend, each turn spiralling us higher and higher.
After what might have been a mile, I could feel my legs beginning to lose all their strength. They slowly gave way and my friend had to take my arm and shepherd me along. We finally saw the trail leading down to the summit viewpoint: it had occasional wooden steps, but the remainder was strewn with rocks and stones on all shapes and sizes. I fell twice, my arms and legs full of abrasions, but somehow we made it to the magnificent view. It was only then I realized my friend thought we would never make it out.
We were in dire straits. He took one arm, had me crouch forward, and somehow we managed to stumble our way back to the gravel road. But the descent was no less arduous than the ascent.
Ahead of us two hikers appeared. The woman urged her partner to go on ahead, took my other arm and walked us all the way down another mile or so to the parking lot. My friend and I began referring to her as a guardian angel. And that’s what she was.
I wish to publicly thank Michele Dolan for her extraordinary kindness and generosity. That there are people like Michele alive and well in this world offers us hope. In the age of COVID, her warmth and compassion serve as a beacon to reach out to one another in our time of need.
Doug Beardsley
Saanichton
Cellphone etiquette has vanished
I’m old enough to remember the wonderful time when none of us carried cellphones. I started with the suitcase phone in my truck, and advanced to the brick phone that got hot enough to keep my head warm in winter.
Now I am as addicted as the next human to my smartphone. As they evolved and got smaller, more people carried them around and chatted endlessly about things they felt important regardless of what those around them thought. Cellphone etiquette was talked about, and people began apologizing and scurrying away when their phone rang or keeping the call short.
Those days are long gone. My own mother-in-law answers her phone right in front of us and carries on long conversations as if we are not there. I also have a reminder to those who treat public spaces like their private office. Being on speakerphone and having a group chat at the park where others are trying to play with the dogs and enjoy nature is not acceptable. The park is not your boardroom, and we do not need to overhear all your solutions to the problems. Just wear an earbud and look as crazy as the next person speaking into thin air.
C. Scott Stofer
Victoria
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