Environment warrants urgent response
Re: “ ‘It is dire:’ Study finds B.C. logging continues on critical caribou habitat,” May 29.
The B.C. government is managing the coronavirus, the housing crisis and many other issues in a way that deserves our confidence and admiration.
However, this report and others remind us that the very positive handling of these social and health issues is not matched on environmental and resource development files.
The B.C. government has permitted logging on more than 900 square kilometres of endangered southern mountain caribou habitat.
B.C. is one of four provinces without an equivalent to the federal Species at Risk Act.
B.C. does not require provincial agencies that issue permits for forestry or energy development to conform to the federal act.
The researcher says: “It is dire. They’re going extinct and it is happening now.”
On May 12, the Times Colonist reported that the U.S. is increasingly concerned over pollution from B.C. mines. The EPA is demanding to know why Teck Resources coal mines in southeastern B.C. are being allowed to exceed guidelines for selenium, a toxic heavy metal.
Monitoring stations near Teck’s mines report levels 50 times what’s recommended for aquatic health. The water flows into the cross-border Kootenai Reservoir and river.
Other examples include continued logging of old growth forests on Vancouver Island.
I don’t want to take anything away from the government’s handling of health and social issues. It is exemplary. However, I believe most British Columbians yearn for a similar urgent, focused, well-planned approach to the environmental crisis, which seems to be confined to back pages these days.
Jocelyn Gifford
Sidney
Natural world is not a ‘resource’
Re: “Flattening the curve of environmental degradation,” comment, June 2.
I appreciate the writers’ concerned observations of the destruction of B.C.’s old-growth forests, the decimation of fish species due to overfishing, the close-to-inevitable extinction of the chinook-dependent southern resident orcas and the increasing numbers of species deemed at risk for extirpation or extinction.
And I applaud their recommendations for halting the destruction and close-to-inevitable collapse of natural systems due to human interference.
However, I take exception to their use of the term “natural resources” to refer to every animal and thing that is not us.
This province (and the planet it is a small part of) is not filled with “resources” for humans. This “crown of creation” thinking — that everything around us was “put here” for us to exploit — is what has gotten us to the edge of a tipping point of large-scale environmental collapse.
A fundamental change of mindset is crucial.
People once believed our planet to be the centre of the universe and, by extension, humans at the centre of the universe as the most deserving species.
This conscious or unconsciously internalized world view has encouraged us to be cruel exploiters of animals, trees and the biomass, and inanimate parts of the province and planet.
Any expression of concern for the environment that centres humans as apart from “the environment” and that sees not interrelationships but “natural resources” is part of the problem.
Diane McNally
Victoria
Motels make ideal treatment facilities
The two motels recently purchased by the B.C. government, Comfort Inn and Paul’s Motor Inn, are exciting ventures to address homelessness, mental-health issues and addictions.
Both these facilities make ideal permanent residential treatment facilities. Their size, under 100 rooms each, makes them ideally suited to addressing the health-care and treatment needs for people who have been homeless with mental-health and addiction issues.
If the partners in these two ventures can be supported to provide appropriate services, the province and city would be doing a stellar job of finally, permanently, addressing the issues that have escalated over decades with only temporary, knee-jerk solutions.
The separate need for affordable housing can be addressed by all municipalities providing available portions of land for this purpose.
Let’s keep the long-term needs of the homeless people separate from those individuals who need affordable housing.
Ann Maffey
Saanich
Time to work together on homelessness
Re: “Local businesses bear brunt of social problems,” June 4.
It was very distressing to read of the horrible experience that the owners, staff and customers of Splashes Bath & Kitchen recently had to endure.
When we are personally exposed to members of the community who are suffering from mental illness, addiction or trauma, our first response is likely to be revulsion and rejection. And it is clear that businesses and residents should not have to bear the costs of repeated transgressions of this type. This just makes everybody more fearful.
But solutions to these complex problems have to start by recognizing they exist, and we can’t just ignore them or move them someplace out of sight. I believe the City of Victoria and the provincial government have shown leadership in taking the first step toward solutions by providing shelter for the unhoused.
Without secure shelter and food, other more complex behavioural issues cannot be addressed at all. But shelter is only a first step. We need to see more funding for assessment, mental-health and harm-reduction services, relocation of residents with complex behavioural problems and support for those seeking abstinence.
We need other municipalities besides Victoria to step up to share responsibility for addressing these challenges. And we need senior levels of government to reinstate some of the funding for supportive community services that they have cut in the past several decades. The public-health and security risks from ignoring marginalized folks in our communities are obvious. Time to do something about it together.
Stephen Tyler
Victoria
Trams could be rail-line alternative
I must express my surprise that we on the Island are bandying about the cost of the estimated millions of dollars to remediate the rail line. Has anyone costed the purchase of a single locomotive to which would be attached any number of expensive passenger units?
Let us look at another option — tramways. The benefits would be numerous: Other than costing less, they could, say, travel as far as Langford. From that point forward, the railway line could be used to travel to its terminus in Courtenay.
Let us not forget that trams could grow to add spur lines. Within a decade of careful planning, these could service the cruise-line arrivals to downtown, to Fairfield and beyond to UVic. It would enhance our city for tourists; who does not love tram travel?
If we are really looking at getting people out of their cars, that is the only reasonable option.
E.J. Ronse
Shawnigan Lake
No weather-proof railing, no problem
Re: “New Dallas Road railing won’t withstand storms, says retired architect,” June 5.
If our Mickey Mouse railing can’t do the job, then no problem. We’ll just close the road! What do you expect for $3.85 million?
Trevor Amon
Victoria
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