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Letters Aug. 24: LNG a better choice for marine vessels; who's running for council?

Letters from our readers. Today: health care and finding doctors, regional policing in Greater Victoria, and deciding who we are as Canadians
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Then-premier Christy Clark addresses the LNG in B.C. Conference in Vancouver in 2015. A letter-writer suggests that liquefied natural gas is a safer and more efficient fuel for marine vessels. DARRYL DYCK, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Marine vessel LNG conversions, not oil spills

Re: “Orcas, so far, have stayed away from oil spill site near San Juan Islands,” Aug. 18.

For now, we can consider ourselves lucky. Large oil spills are something south Islanders haven’t had to deal with along our shores, but how bad does it have to get before we demand solutions that already exist?

We can’t remove 100 per cent of spilled oil, and so we need to do everything we can to lessen the threats to marine wildlife, especially considering marine traffic is a major reason of depletion of species.

One way we can greatly reduce our impact is through marine vessel LNG conversions. LNG is the cleanest-burning transition fuel we have available to us, reducing greenhouse gases and offering the best energy efficiency. LNG is a natural gas that has been cooled, making it a clear and odourless liquid.

The cooling process removes several compounds, which leaves mostly methane in the liquefied gas. The result is a safer fuel because it significantly reduces air pollution and is lighter than water.

If a tank on an LNG-powered vessel were to burst, it would not harm marine life or damage waterways because LNG floats on water. The natural gas dissipates and vapourizes quickly, leaving no residue.

Victoria Shipyards recently converted two TOTE Orca class vessels to dual-fuel systems to enable the ships to use LNG as fuel.

The future is here, along with the necessary local workforce with the required skills. To say it costs too much is simply another way of saying: “We don’t care, it’s the next generation’s or orcas’ problem.”

Phil Venoit, business manager

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 230

Vancouver Island

Candidates, make yourselves known

Here we are, less than two months before the municipal elections, and there is little indication of who is standing for council, and more importantly what they stand for.

No wonder voter turnout for municipal elections is low. I confess, in the past, to sometimes have not even realized that they were being held.

Candidates, I want Victorians to hear from you, so that we can have an informed vote, and a better turnout on election day, Oct. 15.

Joanne Wiggins

Victoria

Less effective police and a less safe community

Now that I am retired from my 28-year career as Crown counsel, of which the past five years were spent in Victoria, I can candidly attest to the systemically compromised nature of law enforcement in the Greater Victoria area.

This is no fault of the individual police departments, which generally handle heavy work loads with limited resources. Rather, it is the failure of the province to adopt a regional approach to policing.

I know of numerous investigations of cross-jurisdictional crimes, some of which were serious and/or complex, which did not result in charges being laid because of investigational flaws caused by poor communication between police forces, inconsistent investigative procedures or inadequate expertise in specialized areas, such as commercial crime or cyber crime.

These systemic flaws cannot be addressed by the formation of yet another “integrated team.”

Individual communities want their own police forces so they can direct law enforcement to their particular needs, a legitimate wish, but one that is eclipsed, I think, by the needs of the region as a whole and each individual residing in it.

Offenders, on the other hand, have in many cases “got away with it.” A less splintered approach would likely have had a different result.

Get with it, province of B.C. The creation of a regional police force will go a long way to resolving some of these serious issues.

Liane O’Grady

Victoria

A fine time to talk about regional policing

The decision by Esquimalt council to withdraw from the joint policing arrangement with the City of Victoria offers the region a rare opportunity to establish a police service for Greater Victoria.

It’s currently a patchwork of mainly small municipal forces with the federal RCMP added in to provide policing for the region.

There is a better way.

There is a huge opportunity now for the provincial government, supported by these same municipalities, to seize the nettle and create a Greater Victoria Police Service worthy of the name and resourced at a level that can cope with the growing challenges we face.

Not to move forward on this will be an insult to taxpayers of the region.

David Collins

Victoria

Other provinces have better jobless rates

Remember when B.C. had the bragging rights for the province with the lowest unemployment rate every month in a given year?

Not anymore. July 2022 had B.C. in fourth spot with Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec having lower unemployment rates.

Alberta has come back from the old days of unemployment to being only 0.1 per cent behind B.C.

Time for our government in Victoria to take note.

Joe Sawchuk

Duncan

Set these standards for life in Canada

It’s a time to pause and rethink who we are as Canadians.

I believe when people who have lost their baggage going on holiday receive equal billing on the evening news with people who are homeless, and our health-care system has reached a point where people do not have access to a doctor, and our hospitals have to close emergency wards, we have a serious problem as a nation.

What have we done to have sunk to this level?

We have lost our focus on who we are, and our basic needs as a society,, not just for ourselves, but for those around us. We have forgotten how to make decisions and requirements that benefit the greater good for everyone, not just ourselves.

As a species we are tribal, we always have been and we still are, nationally and globally. Some are more blatant than others, such as Russia and Ukraine, but it is still so in our society, the haves and the have-nots.

All Canadians should have a right to three basic items;

1. A roof over our heads, with a door that locks;

2. Access to education;

3. Ready access to health care.

These should not be luxuries, or options, they should be the standards we set for ourselves and for all Canadians.

With dignity, health and education we can grow, individually and as a nation.

Maya Angelou stated it beautifully: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

Canadians, we know better and now is the time to do better.

Roy Summerhayes

Chemainus

Maybe B.C. bodies are different from the rest

Re: “Physicians trained abroad face hard way home,” Aug. 20.

I have now come to understand that the people of B.C. must be built in a totally different way than all other people in the world.

Our limbs must be put together in a different way. Our respiratory system must work in a different way. Our vascular system must of course be totally different. Even the ailments we get must be different than anywhere else in the world.

It must be this way, otherwise a person who studies to be a doctor, graduates and then practises at being a doctor for many years, in Europe, or England or in India, or even the United States, would be able to come here and practise his or her trade.

It would appear that all that training and actual practice in this field only qualifies them to become a taxi driver here in B.C. What on earth is going on? Are we so different that a fully qualified doctor, or surgeon, needs to go back to school and take more years of training just to be able to understand one of these very special B.C. bodies?

Or maybe it’s just our government that doesn’t want to pay out any more money and is quite happy with how things are. Or maybe it’s our born and bred B.C. doctors who want to keep it all to themselves?

What the devil is the problem? They are out there, let’s get them practising and let’s get all of B.C. back on track with family doctors.

Lyall Eriksen

Colwood

The future of health care? Look to our railway

Let’s draw a parallel between Island rail and universal health care. Bear with me. I’ll be brief.

The federal government neglected Island rail until it withered and died. They offered it to the private sector, where it also failed.

Our once universally admired national health-care system is experiencing similar trembles.

Prediction: It will become “oddly unworkable, unreliable, and accompanied by much grief…” and then offered to the private sector — where it will thrive for the well-to-do … with few crumbs for the rest of us.

Meantime, large telcos who, on appearances, have no obvious role in delivering “health care,” will do so for the deep-pocketed.

Sound American to you? Class dismissed.

Colin Newell

Victoria

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