We want another booster, so why can’t we get one?
My wife and I are both over 75 years old and have had four COVID vaccination shots and would like to have a fifth one now.
The B.C. government says we cannot get another booster until six months have passed from our last booster, which was in June.
Ontario recommends getting another booster four months after your last booster, as does the United States.
Why then, when surely the goal is to keep everyone, especially the elderly, as protected as possible, does the B.C. government prevent those who are ready, willing and able from getting another booster sooner?
It’s not like they have three-hour waits for any of the COVID shots. I know they want to encourage those not vaccinated to do so, but why are they preventing those who want a booster from getting one after four months?
Rodger Banister
Victoria
Variety of voices needed on school boards
Re: “Remember our children on election day,” letter, Oct. 8.
The letter suggested that voters follow the B.C. Teachers’ Federation recommendation list for school trustee selection. While I agree that teachers should have a place and a strong voice at the table, a school board requires a balance of representation.
The mandate of the board of trustees must be to ensure student success and parent involvement. All trustees should come to the table as a diverse group, all team players in service of this mandate.
The candidates list includes recent high school graduates from the school district currently attending post-secondary education, as well as candidates with expertise in Parents Advisory Committees, administration and finance. These other candidates have valuable perspectives that also need to be represented.
Norm Tandberg
Former District PAC representative and PAC chair
Despite all the promises, seniors are falling behind
A mobility-challenged Victoria elder, I live on an annual income of less than $22,000, of which 56% is spent on a one-bedroom rental apartment.
Groceries, utilities, tenant insurance, phone/internet, laundry, transportation and essential medications consume the rest of my income — based solely on CPP, OAS, GIS and a B.C. “Shelter Aid for Elderly Renters” subsidy of $179 a month.
I’ve been waiting since 2017 for the promised annual $400 B.C. Renters Rebate.
Unfortunately, not being a senior property owner, I can’t collect the government’s annual Homeowner Grant of $885, qualify for renovation rebates or defer my property taxes (which are included in my rent).
In spite of being without a GP for many years, no family here, as well as suffering multiple fractures over the past decade, and diagnosed with cancer last year, I was not eligible for home support. Reducing my meals to two a day does little to pay my bills.
Is the federal government’s “Medical Assistance-In-Dying” law the best, logical solution to my challenges? With the new changes proposed, anyone who is ill, disabled, depressed or destitute will now be able to exercise their “freedom of choice” to end their life.
This “autonomy” citizenship benefit gives new meaning to words like “freedom” and, “peace, order and good government,” which first appeared in Canada with the proclamation of British Columbia in 1858.
David Eby should embody B.C.’s motto, Splendor sine occasu, “Splendour without diminishment,” and truly improve the lives of all our citizens.
Victoria Adams
Victoria
Cap credit-card fees to help small businesses
This past summer, I visited the market garden in Sidney and got to talking with a person at a garden produce booth.
I asked if she took credit cards and she went into a long story about it being her mother’s business and her mother did not want to pay the charge to the credit-card company and, so, it had been “cash only” for years.
This year, she managed to talk her mother into accepting credit card payments. The result was that their sales doubled — well worth it.
I support the European Union model of having a cap on credit-card charges.
Ken Weatherill
North Saanich
What is racist, and what is not
A letter-writer complained that toppling statues of historical figures implicated in organizing the cultural genocide of Indigenous people and the theft of Indigenous people’s land is “racist.” The letter also questioned why vandalism directed at the “majority ethnic group” is not decried as racist.
This complaint and question illustrate a widespread misunderstanding of what “racism” actually is.
Racism is a power dynamic, enforced by public institutions such as government ministries, banks, courts and police, according to which people taken to belong to a racialized minority are for that specific reason deprived of political, economic and social rights like equality, security, and opportunity. People belonging to other groups that are taken to be representative of the dominant culture enjoy unquestionable social legitimacy and are assumed to belong fully as members of society.
For a racialized minority to inflict “racism” on the “majority ethnic group” it would have to take over the financial, political and coercive powers of the state and use them to deprive the “majority ethnic group” of its social, economic and political rights.
Toppling statues of racist historical figures does not do this.
Bill Appledorf
Victoria
Giving the franchise to the disenfranchised
Re: “Fight gerrymandering in local elections,” commentary, Oct. 7.
Geoff Young’s suggestion that having an advance poll at Our Place was somehow “gerrymandering” and an attempt to “harvest votes” for particular candidates, and that Our Place would be party to or complicit in something like that, is, frankly, offensive.
The people who use our services at Our Place — people without homes, people living in poverty — are always amongst the most disenfranchised citizens in our democracy. By having a polling station at Our Place, we were simply trying to enfranchise the disenfranchised, nothing more, nothing less.
Young, as an elected official, should be lauding such efforts, not attributing some sinister motive to them.
Julian Daly, CEO
Our Place
Victoria
No fees required to run for office
Retiring Victoria councillor Geoff Young in his commentary on fighting gerrymandering says that political candidates in federal and provincial are charged fees, refundable based on performance.
This is not true, and likely would be an unconstitutional limit on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which says that the qualifications for both electors and members of Parliament are the same: citizenship.
Chris Fahlman
Saanich
Plenty of unused suites throughout the province
David Eby’s housing plan would allow secondary suites everywhere. He proposes that with a stroke of a pen, B.C. could potentially open up thousands of pre-existing, vacant, secondary suites. It is an issue that I know he is personally aware of.
Finally, some sanity from senior government. Sanity that certainly seems to be lacking at the municipal level.
As an example, housing in Saanich includes a neighbourhood of more than 1,200 single-family homes, with most of them having suites that were purpose-built and fully compliant. Saanich issued building permits for occupancy of those secondary accommodations.
But here’s the insane part. There are no legal rentals allowed. It’s a condition on an antiquated building scheme from the 1970s. Enforced 50 years later in 2022 by a self-appointed neighbourhood group.
Those suites could be opened up to young families, seniors and local workers.
There are pockets of these types of empty suites throughout the province. Eby is right to say that NIMBYism is prevalent in many communities.
Blocking empty, fully compliant, necessary housing at the municipal level seems to be less than compassionate and lacking in empathy. Certainly not forward-looking, unlike the policy announced by Eby.
Sometimes one has to wonder: What is the priority? Is it the accommodation that is the issue, or is “housing crisis” just a buzz word for local municipal politicians to exploit for headlines?
Municipalities extolling the need for new construction, all the while blocking existing housing stock, certainly points to the latter.
Eby’s announcement is a good start to changing the way things have been mishandled by inexperienced, and dare I say self-serving, local politicians.
Doug Coulson
Saanich
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