What’s happening with southern resident orcas
Re: “Hunting for answers: The decline of the southern resident orca,” April 16.
It seems to me there is an alternative problem being overlooked: genetics.
Inbreeding in such a small gene pool must surely be a recipe for extinction.
R.A. Green
Victoria
James Bay Village area is seeing better conduct
Since last year I have noticed an improvement in public conduct in the James Bay Village (Menzies and Simcoe area).
I have no empirical data but the nuanced presence of police patrols appears to have reduced the incidence of unlawful conduct. For example: the brandishing of archery equipment and consumption of alcohol in public walkways has diminished, at least in my perception.
I was an employee of the City and County of San Francisco for 11-plus years. While Victoria is not San Francisco, I will suggest there is a tipping point for the acceptance of anti-social conduct in a densely populated area.
San Francisco has lost an alarming number of retailers such as Safeway grocery stores, Walgreens and CVS pharmacies, and countless mom and pop cafes.
The Starbucks on Castro and 18th Street removed all public seating and bathroom access to improve employee safety.
Regarding this sort of public and personal safety I urge the policy makers and the electorate to research what has worked and what has failed, both in other municipalities and in B.C.
A gentle police presence is a good start. Re-funding public mental health care facilities and staff is more economically holistic and accountable in the long run than granting public funding of much this work to non-government organizations and contractors.
But that’s another story.
Brenda Donald
James Bay
Hey, criminals, it’s supposed to be safer here
After Victoria council’s recent announcement of their plan to extend the bike lanes on Fort Street all the way to Foul Bay, I think I’ve finally figured out what is behind their obsession with protected bike lanes.
By protecting bikers and cyclists, they are making the streets safer for all of us.
My only question is whether anyone has bothered to inform the criminal element in the downtown area of this clever way of making Victoria’s city streets safer for everyone?
Richard Silver
Colwood
Speak up to protect region’s native trees
I am increasingly frustrated by the NDP government making decisions that fly in the face of the climate crisis and the biodiversity emergency.
For example, BC Hydro thinks it is business as usual to cut down 362 trees in rural Saanich as part of a power line upgrade. This Crown corporation should be governed by the same principals that are supposed to be guiding all our decisions in the face of critical loss of habitat and the carbon capture and storage these trees represent.
Provincially we have signed on to the 30x30 Campaign for Nature, whereby 30 per cent of habitat is protected by 2030.
This vital agreement to protect nature came out of the 2022 United Nations’ Biodiversity Conference in Montreal and more than 190 countries have adopted it, including Canada and many of the provinces. Federally the government has also promised to plant two billion trees.
But instead, on Prospect Lake Road in rural Saanich, hundreds of trees in or close to the riparian area adjacent to Prospect Lake will be destroyed without any consideration of the ecosystems services they provide through filtering contaminants entering the lake, shading and shore-stabilizing effects, and the important habitat they offer to wildlife for nesting and foraging.
BC Hydro needs to know that alternative solutions for the tree loss must be prioritized, but this will only happen if the region’s residents speak up about how much they value trees and the biodiversity trees support.
I believe that healthy, sustainable, communities in our region include native trees.
Nathalie Chambers
Saanich
Needed: Job fairs in Mexico and Honduras
Why can’t the hotels, in partnership with the federal government set up an annual immigration/job fair in Mexico or Honduras?
In exchange for a one-year commitment to work with an hotel, the employee gets a work permit and option for immigrant status plus an flight on a chartered aircraft.
Everything is processed before leaving. There would be no shortage of applicants.
Malcolm Berry
Nanaimo
Victoria’s war on cars means more housing, little parking
Victoria City Hall at war with the automobile. Front page news: Another development approved with only four parking spaces.
Apparently this is cause for celebration. Coun. Jeremy Caradonna is quoted as saying “it’s also a car-light development.”
I assume that once the four parking spaces are full, the rest of the car owners will be parking on the street. Also worthy of note is that Caradonna has lots of parking in front of his own house.
Floyd Martin
Victoria
We could learn from cycling cities in Europe
As a cyclist and motorist, one can only describe using/negotiating the city’s bike lane infrastructure as a harrowing experience. Sadly, I try to avoid downtown and it all together.
When approaching intersections, in a vehicle, or on a bike, you need 360-degree vision to proceed. It is a dangerous and stressful experience!
Why city staff did not visit Europe, in high-density cycling cities (such as Amsterdam, Berlin, or Paris) to see how to do this right is beyond comprehension!
I recall an email discussion with then-mayor Lisa Helps when I brought this to her attention. The reply was words to the effect “We received expert advice concerning design.”
In hindsight one can only wonder who these idiots were.
John Stevenson
Victoria
It’s fair to let people with means pay for health care
Re: “We want health care that is fair for everyone,” letter, April 11.
It is alarming that people who use words and phrases like fair, logic and common sense in their argument against a two-tier health care system don’t understand the meaning of the words.
Fair means fair for everyone, including people who are able to pay to receive health care, if they wish. Logic means that a line up of 10 people becomes 9 people if 1 drops out. Common sense, see logic.
People who can afford to receive immediate health care go to other countries or jurisdictions and spend that money there, not because they want to, but because the wait time for health care has become untenable.
That is money that could and should stay in Canada as it would support the health-care system for everyone.
Wait times and lineups only exist where a system is broken. Denying health care to those with means is discriminatory.
Tim Howard
Metchosin
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