Governments fail to take action again
Another failed climate-change conference, as world governments continue to fail to take the action needed.
Major changes are needed, and they will be expensive and difficult. However, there is great economic opportunity here also.
Meanwhile, our governments continue to spend beyond our means and take insufficient action to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. I suggest a global tax on all fossil-fuel industries in all countries to fund international climate-change research and action.
John Miller
Victoria
Moderate action won’t stop climate change
Re: “Climate change too important for politics,” column, Dec. 9.
Lawrie McFarlane writes that governments should be moderate in taking steps to combat global warming or they will face pushback. The problem is that being moderate won’t stop global warming. It would lead to the biggest catastrophe ever faced by humankind, and that’s not hyperbole. To paraphrase Al Gore: “With global warming, there will be no civilization.”
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent report reflects a conservative consensus by governments worldwide on climate findings of the world’s leading scientists. For example, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Russia and other climate-change deniers agreed with the wording line by line.
It states that we must urgently reduce our greenhouse gases by 45 per cent within 12 years or overshoot 1.5 C warming, after which we are likely to lose control of further warming. We must be carbon-neutral within 30 years to maintain 1.5 C. Meanwhile, Canada individually is headed for 5 C warming while pretending that it’s 1.5 C — we’re doing far more than our fair share to make the planet unlivable. The IPCC’s report has been reinforced by others since.
The public is going to have to lead by demanding unequivocal and effective action. Massive change is required. Some of that will be inspiring and some painful, but there’s no alternative.
Rob Garrard
Victoria
Housing hypocrisy from NDP government
Re: “B.C. rental task force calls for end to ‘renovictions,’ ” Dec. 13.
The B.C. NDP’s plan to extinguish democratically enacted strata bylaws restricting condo rentals won’t increase housing affordability. In fact, this initiative will simply inflate condo prices and force more people onto the rental market.
Condos in buildings with restricted rentals tend to be lower-priced, making them more affordable for pensioners and people with modest incomes. Converting these buildings into rentals will simply attract speculators and investors who will bid up prices to whatever the rental market will sustain.
Inflating condo prices will increase competition for rental housing. Many of those individuals will need rent subsidies to live in buildings where they could have previously afforded to buy.
It’s unclear who, besides real-estate speculators, will benefit from this plan. One can hope that politicians will look beyond the distorted rental markets near the provincial legislature and get out into the real world before they decide to take away the collective rights of condo owners to enact their own bylaws.
Gordon Williams
Victoria
Who has the right to control rents?
Re: “B.C. rental task force calls for end to ‘renovictions,’ ” Dec. 13.
Three years ago, I gave our tenants a renoviction notice. They said my timing was inconvenient for them, so I delayed the work six months.
Eventually, the job: 1) soundproofed the suite from the main unit, 2) reduced the heating costs of the entire house by 75 per cent (by adding insulation and converting to natural gas), 3) fire-proofed suite walls and ceilings to code, 4) added interconnected smoke alarms, 5) added a third bedroom to the suite and 6) doubled the kitchen size.
The suite is now much cheaper to heat, can accommodate one more person and is so much nicer.
I have no say about gas, lumber, soap, hydro rates or restaurant prices. What gives others the right to control what I do to or charge for my suite?
Mark Henry
Saanich
Crosswalks need flashing amber lights
All I want for Christmas are amber flashing lights at crosswalks, especially, the new crosswalk into Gyro Park on Cadboro Bay Road. I want replacement of the three-week burned-out street light over the crosswalk at the Sinclair Road and Finnerty Road entrance into the university.
Congratulations to Saanich for upgrading many street lights. The crosswalk at the corner of Gordon Head and Feltham is an excellent example.
Nestor Fedoruk
Saanich
Identity politics won’t solve housing problem
Re: “Affordable housing prescribed for Fairfield bout of ‘affluenza,’ ” Dec. 7.
How sad to see Coun. Ben Isitt using divisive Trumpian tactics in arguing for affordable housing. Almost everyone — including those of us in Fairfield — agrees it’s badly needed. But name calling and playing to identity politics won’t help.
Isitt says he wants to be our next mayor. So his ideas matter. And what’s his affordable housing solution? “De-commodifying.”
De-commodifying means pricing private property according to what the occupant can pay instead of market value. It’s synonymous with: “From each according to ability, to each according to need.” Just because Karl Marx fathered this concept doesn’t make it bad. But it’s certainly revolutionary for Victoria. And the idea has never worked anywhere it has been tried.
Isitt says some private landowners owe the community de-commodified housing. And he has decided one such place is real estate in Cook Street Village belonging to someone other than himself.
The best leaders lead by example. So I suggest Isitt de-commodify a piece of his own property to show us. Remember his 2016 advocacy for a tent city in a neighbourhood he had no connection with while simultaneously voting to ban overnight camping in a park next to the home of his ex-wife and daughter? Doesn’t that feel like de-commodifying the other guy’s land but not your own?
Any owner has the right to de-commodify to make his own land more affordable. But it’s called expropriation when done by the government under the pretext of land-use regulation.
Terry Colyer
Victoria
Canada should release Chinese executive
Re: “Feds caught between U.S., China in Huawei affair,” Dec. 14.
So, U.S. President Donald Trump has put Canada in an awkward situation by making the Meng Wanzhou case about trade deals instead of international justice. Or he just handed us a way out, courtesy of his big mouth.
Since we detained Meng to face trial for allegedly breaking international law, and since Trump decided to make the case about trade and not justice, and since Canada doesn’t want to get stuck in the middle of trade negotiations between the U.S. and China, and since we’re trying to negotiate our own trade deals with China, which Trump’s play will surely derail, Canada should now offer to release Meng in exchange for the two Canadians who have been arrested.
The U.S. can extradite Meng from somewhere else, some other time.
Alex McGowan
Colwood
Arts groups provide outstanding benefits
Re: “Big rent hikes at Royal Theatre leave arts groups scrambling,” Dec. 7.
What is the point of having two outstanding theatre venues in this city if our best and brightest artists cannot perform there?
Pacific Opera and Victoria Symphony are the bedrock of musical culture in this city, and I find it disheartening and distressing to learn the Royal and McPherson Theatres Society plans to increase rents at both theatres by 100 per cent — a move that is apparently due to lack of support from core municipalities.
Our fine opera company and symphony provide outstanding benefits to this region — not the least of which are performances for thousands of school students and the Symphony Splash concert that delights tens of thousands more.
Surely these cultural gems deserve as much support as bicycle lanes or relocating statues.
Grania Litwin
Former Times Colonist arts reviewer
Board member of POV
