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Letters Nov. 27: Guess who pays for paid sick leave?; the fallout of Langford's expansion

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The B.C. government's mandate for five additional days of sick leave for employees will end up costing consumers as prices rise, a letter-writer suggests. GRAEME ROY, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Cost of sick leave will be felt by all

The government’s announcement that as of Jan. 1, all employees in B.C. will be entitled to five days of paid sick leave.

This benefit will cost my medium-sized business in excess of $100,000 annually. Unfortunately, experience has shown that most employees who have sick leave benefits will take the days off, even if not sick.

As businesses will not be able to absorb these extra costs, consumers will have to pay more for all goods and services.

I am not suggesting that paid sick leave is wrong, just that once again the cost of living will increase to families already struggling financially.

Tim Hackett
Brentwood Bay

Langford building up instead of out

Langford is running out of space to build out, so the cry is to build up. Is this a case of enough is enough?

My home on Latoria Road, our dream, has been invaded by trespassing and total disregard. On a daily basis our home withstands blasts strong enough to bring true fear to your heart.

Driveway and waterlines disturbed, with the homeowner left to redo ­every­thing as to ensure lines are properly placed, using up thousands of dollars out of our pocket.

So when Langford says let us build up, could it be because there is not much land to blast or trees to remove?

Our property is home to an amazing collection of birds that make their homes in our trees. So now we face our own need to move on and find a home free of ­blasting and disregard for our privacy.

The concept of building up just makes me shake my head. More people in a ­condensed space, more cars, more need for hospital care, police, infrastructure, physicians, and at what cost?

Lynn Duck
Langford

Salt Spring Island bridges make sense

Islands on the East Coast (scratch that, all over the world) are facing harsher weather conditions, yet have bridges connecting them to the mainland. Bridges linking the Saanich Peninsula to Cowichan via Salt Spring Island would be a perfect example of what should be done.

It would provide little to no delays compared to the ferries or the Malahat. It’s about time someone said this. We should push for this development.

I’m tired of seeing taxpayer money being wasted on ridiculous bypass ideas. We need bridges.

Sarah Lovan
North Saanich

There’s half a tank for emergencies

At first glance, gas restrictions of 30 litres per fill don’t make sense. ­People will drive around with at least half a tank, fill the top half as needed and fill up twice as often.

On the other hand, should there be a major gas shortage and only emergency vehicles were allowed to fill up, most ­people would still have at least half a tank for their own emergencies.

Erik DeWiel
Ladysmith

Victoria’s climate change and bicycle lanes

Victoria council and city staff have been very emphatic about the need to build bicycle lanes to help combat climate change.

Sounds great, but they chopped down mature trees on Fort Street to build them, they caused people using cars to find alternate longer routes that disrupt ­formerly quiet family-oriented back streets and burn even more gas, and, most worrying, every conversion to AAA bike-first roads in Victoria has involved massive amounts of concrete pouring.

Don’t they know how much the use of concrete adds to climate change?

Vancouver and Richardson streets gleam with brand new shiny white concrete plazas. And whoever on city staff had the really bright idea to add even more concrete to Richardson by building the speed bumps has simply shifted many bike riders to Rockland.

The giant concrete plaza on ­Richardson near Durbin has now become skateboard heaven. (At least they made some people happy!)

Did anyone on staff bother to run the numbers on how much these conversions have added to climate change?

Well done, Victoria council and staff. Great planning and analysis.

Jill Rogers
Victoria

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