Change school hours; problem solved
Re: “The many dark sides of permanent daylight time,” opinion, Jan. 2.
What utter nonsense. Time zones, like provincial and national borders, are arbitrary imaginary lines. To suggest they cause the impacts described is ludicrous.
Perhaps the fact that residents in eastern B.C. live in clean, sparsely populated mountains and most western B.C. residents live in a dirty, crowded city has more to do with claimed problems.
The supposed impact on school children is easily remedied. Change the starting and finishing times. After all, they too are completely arbitrary.
Bill Gibson
Victoria
Really want darkness at 9 a.m.?
Noting how dark it still is at 8 a.m. these days, I began to wonder how I would feel if it was actually not until 9 or 9:30 a.m. before it started to get light, as would happen if B.C. adopts permanent daylight time.
It is dark long enough in the morning now. So when the B.C. government had a poll on whether to abandon the twice-yearly time switch, why was the option of staying on standard time not included?
They should not make decisions based on a weighted poll.
Ron Alexander
Saanichton
Wendy’s printing press led to the royals
My exposure to royalty occurred during Expo 86.
My then wife, Wendy, “button-holed” the deputy minister in charge of affairs for Expo 86 on the street in Victoria in early 1986, and told him she operated a platen printing press, and that she was willing to donate her printing skill to Expo 86 for any fine printing they may need.
The deputy minister said he would consider Wendy’s offer and contact her if needed.
Wendy told me later that she didn’t expect to hear back from him.
Well, much to our surprise she was contacted by the minister’s office, and requested she print the invitations to attend Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, with Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales.
Two weeks after the invitations were printed and delivered, we received one of the invitations in the mail inviting us to attend, which of course we did.
Wendy, as some readers may have already guessed, is Wendy Morton, the well-known poet.
David Morton
East Sooke
Swimmers had to be tough 98 years ago
Coverage of this year’s polar bear swims warrants a nod to hardier souls of the past.
In 1922, the annual Christmas Day swim in the Gorge was delayed by ice on the outdoor saltwater pool.
Undaunted, the swim club members used pikes and poles to push the the ice into the open waterway, donned their swimsuits then plunged in to swim the full length of the 50-yard pool.
Afterwards, hot drinks served around a pot-bellied stove in the floating clubhouse nicely revived everyone – even well enough to go ice-skating on frozen Portage Inlet later that same day.
Dennis Minaker
Saanich
Let the punishment fit the crime
Re: “Fields of joyrides ‘all too common’ ,” Jan. 2.
Give the boys who damaged the field a shovel and a rake each and make them fix it.
Kathleen Peace
Comox
Malahat worries? Buy a bike or a horse
Much has been written about this one corridor to the rest of the Island. To spend money on a second corridor in case of an earthquake makes no sense until such time that traffic volumes warrant it.
The same earthquake that makes the Malahat impassible, will also make a mess of ferry terminals, highways, bridges, over and underpasses on any secondary route.
As far as access to hospitals is concerned, the Victoria ones will be inundated with local patients. The rest of the Island will have to rely on local facilities.
Better to spend money on those facilities and to teach people to put together a seven-day survival kit. To minimize crashes on the Malahat, install a speed camera on every turn.
I recommend that our highway engineers visit the Netherlands, where the whole country is covered by speed cameras.
On my recent visit, nobody passed me if I did the posted speed limit, whether on a country road or major highway.
Trucks must keep to the right lane and can not exceed 90 km/h even if the speed limit is 120, and cannot pass another vehicle unless that vehicle is doing less than 80 km/h.
A relative of mine who owns a Jaguar and likes to go fast, became, as he told me, a law-abiding citizen when he raked up 3,000 euros in fines. He also told me he is much more relaxed now when driving.
Some people see cameras as an invasion of privacy. To them, I would suggest buying a bike or a horse.
Vince Devries
Ladysmith
Lessons from Winnipeg for Malahat
It is encouraging to read correspondence acknowledging the need for an alternate Malahat route due to the coming megathrust earthquake. Unfortunately, some still think it’s unnecessary.
Is there a precedent in Canada for the construction of infrastructure to protect citizens’ lives from the risks of predictable major natural disasters? There is. It’s the 47-kilometre Red River Floodway, constructed around Winnipeg following the 1950 Red River Flood which devastated the city.
Completed in 1968, at a present-day cost of over half a billion dollars (jointly financed by the federal and provincial governments) it proved its worth many times over by saving the city from the worst of the 1997 Red River Flood. Even then, a billion-dollar expansion was completed in 2010 — to protect the city from a 1-in-700-year flood event.
Megathrust earthquakes have an historical record of occurring here once every 200-800 years. With the last occurring 320 years ago, we’re in the window for the next one.
The Red River Floodway presents the perfect Canadian precedent of infrastructure governments can and have built, like an alternate Malahat route, to protect citizens from predictable natural disasters. All that’s needed is the will to act — and it certainly shouldn’t cost a billion dollars.
Kevin Bishop
Saanich
Someone grabbed my coat, scarf and gloves
The New Year’s Day Victoria City Hall levee was quite the success with many citizens showing up for the free food and Mayor Lisa Helps’ invitation for attendees to express in writing their ideas on addressing the city’s adaptation and mitigation to the climate emergency.
Most people present were there to listen to the mayor’s address of the levee audience, but someone was present to take advantage of the coat rack – stealing my coat, scarf and gloves.
I don’t mind giving to the needy, nor do I mind the individual who stole my coat if they needed it for warmth.
However, I believe that the City Hall security should be able to hand out coat checks so that attendees can be assured of recovering their coats, which were left in good faith. The mayor has encouraged the public to attend future public meetings to further the discussion on remedies to the climate emergency and if there could be security of one’s possessions assured, I’m certain that other attendees at these discussions would appreciate the effort.
Rafe Sunshine
Victoria
Bateman art brings joy and sadness
Thanks to the Times Colonist for publishing Robert Bateman’s beautiful painting, Winter Snow – Blue Jay, on the front page of the paper on New Year’s Eve.
It brought back a lot of fond childhood memories for me, remembering both snowy winters and the cheeky blue jay, who would suddenly appear in huge numbers in our Saanich neighbourhood.
Bateman’s painting left me saddened, wondering if such delightful scenes will ever occur during winters later in this century.
Tim Hackett
Brentwood Bay
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