No justification for trade barriers
Re: “Alberta declares beer trade war with Ontario,” Nov. 27.
After reading about Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s disbelief about trade restrictions between her province and Ontario, I ask: Why do we have any interprovincial trade barriers in the first place?
It seems anything with alcohol in it raises the red flag between Canadian provinces. If a cottage brewery in Nova Scotia has a business case to produce and ship really heavy freight, pay a middle person to sell it and still turn a profit at my retail liquor outlet, well, good on them.
It’s just not Canadian to do this. Is there a better way to put it? We have a “Canadian” set of values and somewhere in our “here’s-what’s-right” DNA, let people with the same passport sell each other stuff without government getting its sticky hands involved.
Ask any small brewery in our province and I bet they would welcome the challenge to have our great locally produced suds go up against the best.
Dale Dymianiw
Victoria
Two officials suffered serious damage
Re: “Man arrested in death of senior,” “Mullen fired from casino security job: court papers,” Nov. 28.
A small news item in Wednesday’s paper stated that: “The identity of the suspect can’t be released until charges have been approved by Crown counsel.” Why was this same consideration not given to the clerk and the sergeant-at-arms of the legislature?
Alan Mullen, the unqualified man behind this whole fiasco, was quoted as stating that his dismissal from a casino was “callous, abrupt and humiliating” and caused him anxiety and loss of reputation. Why then did he orchestrate that same scenario for these two long-serving and dedicated public servants?
I have strong doubts that any charges against Craig James and Gary Lenz are going to be forthcoming. But they have suffered serious damage.
This whole affair stinks to high heaven.
Ingrid Mercer
Victoria
Beware of lowering water temperature
Re: “How to save cash, keep house warm during the winter,” Nov. 24.
The article on how to save cash and keep the house warm during winter contained some good advice. However, the suggestion that the temperature in the water heater be reduced to about 120 or 125 F (49 to 52 C) is flawed and can have serious consequences.
The risk of the spread of Legionnaire’s disease, a form of pneumonia, is greatly increased at that temperature. It is normally present in household water and it does not normally affect us in drinking water. It is killed in the water tank when the temperature is set to 140 F (60 C), but it grows when the temperature is 120 F.
It is most dangerous when the bacteria enters the lungs, such as when showering. Lowering the water temperature can be dangerous. I suggest reading: canadasafetycouncil.org/ heated-debate-about-hot-water/
Alan Bailey,
Victoria
Victorians take walk on the dark side
About half the population will score below average on a standard IQ test, and about half the pedestrians and bicyclists in Greater Victoria are wearing camouflage-black clothing on dark days and darker nights.
Is this correlation or just coincidence?
James Grayson
Saanich
Make athlete murals more accessible
Re: “Model athlete back to where she broke free from barriers,” Nov. 25.
I read the article with excitement. It’s about a high-level athlete who trained in Victoria and was an inductee into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. Stephanie Dixon was invited back for speaking engagements and a signing of her picture on a mural at Commonwealth Pool.
I had a class at that facility that day and decided to leave home early to look out for her mural. Surely, I thought, it would be in a very visible area of the pool.
To my disappointment, Dixon’s mural and others were behind closed doors in an office that is out of the way of the public.
I am urging the 94 Forward organization and the Commonwealth Pool to come together and display these murals in an area with the most exposure for the public. What a missed opportunity to motivate children and make everyone feel proud of these athletes and coaches who have contributed so much.
I briefly saw about six murals. Perhaps more names and pictures should be added for their contributions to sports in Victoria. Just a thought.
Carole Richer
Victoria
Tax reduction could help preserve trees
Re: “Trees bring benefits in so many ways,” letter, Nov. 22.
Great idea. A tax reduction on properties that contain trees could help preserve more green space, which is valuable to the whole community in many ways, as the letter mentioned.
We also appreciate the statistics the letter-writer shared regarding canopy loss in the Capital Regional District’s urban core. We would point out, though, that the information is from 2011. Nearly eight years have passed, with intensified development since then. We believe the loss of canopy by now is much worse.
We encourage all CRD municipalities to greatly increase tree-planting and preservation, and encourage residents to plant trees, because we need them.
As the letter-writer mentioned, trees reduce carbon, clean and cool the air, and produce oxygen — all essential services, as we face increasingly harsh climate change.
As development increases, we also encourage communities to purchase well-treed properties when they come up for sale. They could either covenant the trees and resell them, or preserve them as mini-parks and carbon-storing oases, where more trees and perhaps community gardens could be planted. We believe all citizens should have access to trees and green space, now and in the densified future.
Grace Golightly
Community Trees Matter Network
Alberta squandered its Heritage Fund
Re: “Electric-vehicle reality is subsidized by oil,” letter, Nov. 27.
If the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, established by former premier Peter Lougheed in the 1970s, had been used as intended as “savings for a rainy day,” Alberta wouldn’t be in the pickle it is in today.
Norway is a perfect example of having saved the profits from the oil industry in a similar fund, and today it is in the enviable position of making the transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable sources of energy with little economic pain. Alberta has done the opposite and spent like a drunken sailor during the boom periods in the oil industry, rather than putting funds aside for the inevitable bust cycle.
Alberta, today, is blaming British Columbia’s resistance to more pipelines for the dire straits it is in. A healthy Heritage Fund would have lessened the impact of its present bust cycle.
It is decisions made by past Alberta governments, and not other provinces’ positions, that make Alberta’s economic future look bleak.
Ria Lewis
Maple Bay
Deer-vaccine program is misplaced money
Re: “Oak Bay woman injured by deer,” Nov. 27.
We have the highest rate of child poverty in Canada, we have a chronic homelessness problem, we have an opioid crisis and we have limited financial resources.
There are plans to administer a contraceptive vaccine to control the number of deer in Oak Bay. The cost of the program is $40,000.
This is a misplaced allocation of scarce financial resources worthy of a Monty Python skit.
The buck needs to stop here.
Keith Laxton
Victoria
Self-serve checkouts take away jobs
As the public embraces the faceless convenience of self-checkout lanes, corporations laugh. Fewer and fewer employees with whom to contend. No wages, benefits, sick days, holiday pay. No pesky human interaction. Who cares if more and more jobs are disappearing, and with them the dignity of paid work?
Every time you, the consumer, save a few minutes at the self-serve checkout, think about the role you willingly play in the replacement of human beings with automatons. Your job might be next.
Sophia Sperdakos
Oak Bay
