Increase council funding for theatres
Re: “Big rent hikes at Royal Theatre leave arts groups scrambling,” Dec. 7.
Are we handing our city over to Scrooge? It’s hard enough to run an organization such as the Victoria Symphony or Pacific Opera Victoria under present conditions, but next year, the Royal Theatre plans to double the rent for these cultural icons and the other arts organizations that make Victoria such a vibrant cultural centre.
The Royal is not the villain here. Oak Bay, Victoria and Saanich councils have not increased their support of the theatre for 20 years, while costs have continued to rise.
Come on, councillors. We elected you to create the kind of city that encourages the arts and supports the venues where exciting theatre, music, dance and opera happen. It’s time to nurture the arts in Victoria by adequately funding the Royal and McPherson theatres.
Lisbie Rae
Victoria
Rent increases are sad day for Victoria
Re: “Big rent hikes at Royal Theatre leave arts groups scrambling,” Dec. 7.
How sad it is to see the management of the Royal Theatre going down to such a low level. I attended a concert by a Queen tribute band this year and had to leave, the band was so bad. I thought: “Who would hire such an awful band?”
Now I hear the Royal has upped the Victoria Symphony’s rental fees 100 per cent. I was born here and am 66 now. Always, I thought the Royal was a supportive theatre; now I think it is a money-grabbing, poorly run business.
It’s a sad day for Victoria.
Daryl Hamilton
Victoria
Stop unnecessary sacrifice of trees
Re: “ Residents’ angst about trees’ fate sparks rethink on sewage pipe,” Dec. 7.
The Capital Regional District plans to cut down as many as 50 trees on Grange Road in Saanich, to construct a solids-conveyance line to the Hartland landfill. A neighbourhood group has suggested building it along Marigold Road instead, where no trees would be affected.
The attitude that trees are expendable is becoming archaic, given the imperative concern about global warming, and the climate change we already see locally.
Large urban trees are a cost-effective way to buffer climate change. The economic argument for keeping large trees is compelling.
Large, mature trees are exponentially better at sequestering carbon than are young saplings. It can take 200 to 300 or more saplings to equal the same amount of carbon-storing that one large tree can achieve.
The neighbourhood where the CRD plans to remove these trees is a high-traffic area. The neighbourhood needs these trees for sound buffering and to clean pollutants from the air.
Fifty trees mitigate a lot of stormwater. Is it really prudent and economically feasible to remove them, when an alternative exists?
Studies have proven that people living in neighbourhoods with mature trees have improved health and less stress. Why remove that benefit from any neighbourhood?
Our group, Community Trees Matter Network, urges the CRD and all municipalities to stop the unnecessary sacrifice of our hard-working mature trees. These trees are priceless assets, which take many decades to replace.
Verna Stone, Lisa Gordon and David Muncaster
Community Trees Matter Network
B.C. being hypocritical on clean energy
Here is a direct quote from B.C.’s new CleanBC environment plan: “From fossil fuels to clean energy.”
The problem is: Fossil-fuel development in the form of natural gas will be increasing with the new $40-billion Kitimat LNG facility. And it is getting tax incentives. There is also another LNG project (Woodfibre) close to development just south of Squamish.
There is nothing in the plan that addresses coal production in the province, transportation of coal by rail or its export from the Deltaport. The government on its website lists nine operating coal mines in B.C.
How are citizens of the province to take seriously this new plan of reducing fossil fuels when the same government provides tax breaks to big companies from China, Korea, Japan and the Netherlands to build it — and a separate new $6.2-billion pipeline is to be built to carry the gas to the new project?
How are citizens to take seriously this new plan when coal production and its transportation continue?
Don’t get me wrong. I am in favour of all these projects.
I just don’t like seeing a government pretending to be green and announcing reducing fossil fuels while at the same time it continues to provide our tax money for fossil-fuel development in the form of LNG and continues to issue permits for coal production, the province being the largest coal producer in Canada.
Brian Peckford
Nanaimo
Public deserves more answers
Re: “Laundering the money,” editorial, Dec. 2.
Thanks to the Times Colonist for drawing this to the attention of the public and demanding answers.
The editorial is right: The public, including Attorney General David Eby, has a right to know why the extensive and costly police investigation into money laundering of as much as $500 million has quietly been stayed by the Crown.
The excuse for the secrecy? We the mushrooms are told it’s because of “operational reasons.” There is a real stench in the air. It’s hard to tell if it’s from the prosecution or within the court system, but it is truly a stink.
The smell isn’t from the police, as they saw fit to lay the charges and thereby would have exposed the police “operation” during the trial.
Perhaps money laundering has been quietly accepted as an industry in B.C. and the government authorities are just as happy to close their eyes to it.
John Walker
Cobble Hill
Never apologize for peaceful protest
Re: “Sorry for the delays, Victoria,” comment, Dec. 5.
Some threats are deniable, particularly if you cover your eyes, and conservatives, who see the world as a threatening place, seem impervious to the threat of climate change.
Conservatives might avoid action on climate change because it brings a slew of expensive regulations that increase the cost of doing business and reduce company profits.
In the interests of persuading others, nonviolent protest is not an easy task, to be sure, and it’s one many of us are worse at than we’d like to think. However, it’s just the best way forward, and something to admire and support.
Bill Perry
Victoria
