How you can help local businesses
I have heard from several knowledgeable citizens in the business community that if the COVID-19 crisis carries on for too long, Victoria could see up to 50 per cent of its small boutique restaurants close for good and up to 30 per cent of small retail businesses in both the downtown core and in the malls close for good.
Small businesses such as these account for 70 to 75 per cent of employment across Canada. This is a crisis bigger than COVID-19.
If you are healthy and want to go out, patronize your favourite restaurant or your favourite local retail store. Close your Amazon account.
If you are still nervous about eating in your favourite restaurant, contact them and buy a gift card, which you can redeem later.
It will help them with their cash flow after enduring three months without revenue and likely a very slow startup to recovering their client base.
Paul Arnold
Saanich
Move forward on Northern Junk buildings
Re: “Northern Junk proposal back on hold; buildings have been empty for 42 years,” June 12.
The mind-warping reality in downtown Victoria is that two buildings have sat empty for 42 years — because they are old.
While acknowledging the historical significance of the Northern Junk buildings on Wharf Street, it’s hard not to be startled by the reality distortion field protecting the privileged few in our society who are sufficiently insulated to assert that construction plans in 2020 should follow those of the 1860s.
The latest developer’s submission offered to quite literally wrap a new building within the old yet failed to be approved because the new structures “dwarfed” the heritage buildings.
As a bystander, you would be forgiven for wondering if the people who have been holding these developments hostage for 20 years have any idea what they actually want. More importantly, have they contemplated what the area needs for the next 42 years?
It must be a comfortable place to be in life when you can decry the development of rental housing for being “out of character” in a neighbourhood you don’t live in — while in the midst of a full-blown housing crisis.
History should be celebrated, recorded, preserved and learned from — absolutely. Rearview-mirror awareness is vital — especially when you’re driving a classic. But backward is definitely not the direction to keep your head turned when you’re the one in control of driving the car forward.
Oliver March
Fernwood
Move B.C. Ferries back into government
Re: “Transportation minister unhappy with B.C. Ferries’ plans to cut sailings,” June 16.
The story ends with a comment from Finance Minister Carole James to the effect that moving B.C. Ferries back into the Ministry of Transportation would also roll B.C. Ferries’ debt back onto the province’s books, thus making borrowing money harder/more expensive.
So, B.C. Ferries is nothing but an accounting trick, designed to get its debt off the government’s ledgers?
It’s time to bite the bullet and take B.C. Ferries back into government, where it belongs, so that it can reliably and sustainably provide the essential services paid for by our taxes and fares. This pandemic is not the only crisis the “marine highway” will face.
Andrew Gow
Victoria
Oops, you missed a step on strawberries
Re: “A tutorial on enjoying local strawberries,” letter, June 17.
I fully agree with the letter-writer regarding strawberries, except that they missed a step. I would suggest Step 2.5: rinse the strawberries in cold water, then proceed to Step 3.
Frank Enns
Duncan
Time to stop ‘skinning’ heritage buildings
As owners and operators of a boutique travel company that offers high-end tours internationally, my wife and I have travelled the world for decades searching out the most spectacular destinations. Yet we find that the beauty, liveability and authenticity of Victoria’s Old Town and the Inner Harbour make it one of the most remarkable cities in the world.
We choose to call Victoria home and live in a restored heritage building, The Vogue, which thankfully did not fall prey to the recent practice of “skinning” heritage buildings.
We also own a rental property on Yates Street in the Leiser building, which has also been restored and modernized without changing its heritage character.
A recent example of “skinning” is the development of Customs House, which has destroyed the essential character of an iconic building in the heart of the Inner Harbour.
But it is not just my esthetic that should concern the city council, city planners and developers. Most charters and international policies, including that of the International Council on Monuments and Sites and Canada’s own Standards and Guidelines for the Conservation of Historic Places, either explicitly or implicitly list “façadism” as the wrong approach to heritage conservation.
I wish to add my voice to those opposing similar developments, including along Wharf Street, and on Pandora and Broad Street.
Let’s keep this beautiful downtown core alive, diverse and authentic.
Dr. Dag Goering
Victoria
Separate kinds of care needed for seniors
My mother recently moved into a long-term care facility and I found quite a few areas of concern.
This country needs three types of care facilities for the elderly: Independent living, assisted living and long-term care. The units should not be lumped together for simplicity of management as each serves a completely different kind of senior.
Many seniors opt to sell their home and adjust to independent living without the problems associated with a home. They are healthy and mentally alert.
Other seniors find that they cannot manage on their own and require someone to cook, clean, bath, and escort them on their daily outings.
Long-term care is self-explanatory.
These three groups need different facilities and different levels of professionally trained caregivers. Seniors can move between these facilities as their health-needs change.
Long-term care should be associated with a medical facility such as a hospital so that professional, immediate care, and end-of-life management is handled with dignity and compassion.
Government-run facilities must be held accountable with frequent inspections and assessments of staff and their needs. Higher wages and certified training will encourage people to work in these centres.
Families should be consulted on the care of their relatives and not left behind locked doors with no input. Social workers need to be available to assist families in their decision-making.
Susan Dennison
Parksville
New Zealand cases a cautionary tale
Re: “Air Canada CFO urges looser travel restrictions as PM extends border shutdown,” June 16.
So, we read that the travel industry — Air Canada, in particular — wants a relaxation of quarantine rules.
New Zealand’s experience this week — when two travellers were given permission to leave quarantine early and later tested positive for COVID-19 — serves as stark warning that quarantines must be strictly enforced if we are to maintain progress in fighting the virus, and that Dr. Bonnie Henry’s ongoing caution is well-founded.
Roger Love
Victoria
Science changes with new findings
Re: “Science can be a fickle authority,” letter, June 12.
The letter complains that science is sometimes a fickle authority. He cites as evidence of the fickleness the changing recommendations for halting the spread of the COVID-19 virus and suggests that politics has entered into those recommendations.
There is no question that politics and economic considerations influence social policy and well they should. But the aim of science is to create accurate models of the way the world works based on evidence. Assertions influenced by political, social or economic considerations are not and cannot be scientific.
Science can and should change with new findings and that has happened with COVID-19. As a previously unknown virus it is to be expected that recommendations to control its spread would change as scientists learned more about it.
British Columbia is fortunate in having Dr. Bonnie Henry as our provincial health officer who interprets the science for us without economic and political influence.
Harvey Williams
Victoria
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