With the climate, look at the long term
In the recent article on the need for better planning and budgeting for snow removal by local municipalities, Saanich Mayor Dean Murdoch states that “snowfall events are clearly becoming more frequent.”
It’s true that following four winters (from 2012-13 to 2015-16) with virtually no snow in Victoria, we have since had above normal snowfall for six of the past seven winters.
However, with climate you need to look over a longer period of time — climatologists typically use a time frame of 30 years — in order to “smooth out” the short-term fluctuations in the weather.
Over this longer term, Victoria has experienced a very clear decline in average snowfall: Over the past 30 years, average snowfall is down by about one-third compared with the preceding 30-year period — and that’s despite having two historically large snowfalls in 1996 and again this year.
Analysis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that average snowfall since 1930 has been decreasing more rapidly in the 91原创 Northwest than in almost any other region of the U.S. — by more than 1.2 per cent annually.
Looking forward, the impacts from climate change will be even more significant. As our climate warms, the amount of snowfall will continue to decrease. A recent report for the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy noted that “warmer temperatures will reduce winter snowfall substantially in coastal B.C.,” and projects a 40% decrease in snowfall by 2050.
I hope that our local politicians don’t let short-term fluctuations in our weather blind them to the long-term trends, resulting in an over-investment in snow-removal equipment that will rarely be needed in the future.
Steven Murray
Victoria
Pharmacy shortage another bad sign
Recent reports that Island pharmacies are facing weather-related delivery delays clearly demonstrates a lack of adequate pharmaceutical inventory, and that another “just-in-time” delivery system is not doing the job so many of us depend upon. A mere delay in deliveries from a snowfall has virtually brought our pharmaceutical system to its knees.
The recent snowfall is a pittance compared with the disruption and impact of a moderate or severe earthquake, and yet there seems to be no Plan B. This situation is simply a recipe for disaster for so many in our province, especially given that prescriptions can only be renewed when a few tablets remain and then only for short periods of time.
With the province promoting emergency readiness, is no one in authority paying attention to this breakdown? Is no one managing the overall pharmacy system? Why is it left to individual pharmacies to scramble for supplies?
Surely this is yet another sign that our health-care system is poorly managed. It’s hanging onto a cliff-edge with its fingernails. So are we.
Rick Lee
Victoria
Don’t put all offices in the downtown core
Re: “Back to the office? It’s an outdated idea,” letter, Dec 24.
I agree that it is time to change the concept of employees and the need for offices. A great example is the new Telus building in downtown Victoria.
The City of Victoria, along with one of the many outlying municipalities, should have encouraged (forced) Telus to build elsewhere instead of adding to congestion in the core of downtown Victoria.
Without reasonable rapid transit on any horizon, decentralization of businesses is key to meeting the greenhouse gas emissions reductions we all want to see.
Mike Wilkinson
Duncan
Massive upheaval changes the way we work
Re: “A return to normalcy includes the office,” editorial, Dec. 22.
The editorial is nonsensical. After stock phrases such as “in a purely technical sense,” “developing a sense of teamwork” and “the route forward can seem daunting,” to name just a few, we get to this: “Above all, there is a pressing need to restore a sense of normalcy to our daily life, and all of us share that responsibility.” Civil servants are asked to “play their part” in restoring “normalcy” — whatever that means.
The argument to bar civil servants from remote work might be weak, but is not the most serious flaw in this editorial.
This idea of “normalcy” — presumably returning to work routines predating March 2020 — is gone along with much else and will not be seen again.
Pervasive inflation, political instability with the rise of the autocratic extreme right, ongoing war on Europe’s eastern border, the ebbing pandemic, the collapse of economic globalization, the rise of artificial intelligence, the development of fusion energy, increasing tension with China, and the effects of the climate crisis mean that we must think carefully and observantly about our current circumstances, in B.C. and beyond.
The choice of remote work, for civil servants and everyone else, has to be something to explore and support as such scenarios develop.
Platitudes about returning to “normalcy” in an editorial of a daily newspaper, when every nation faces the biggest social, political and technological upheaval in 75 years, betray that we recognize neither the seriousness of what has happened nor what is yet to come.
Paul Walton
Nanaimo
Guide is needed, where are the bureaucrats?
Re: “A return to normalcy includes the office,” editorial, Dec. 22.
I wholeheartedly support the observations that public servants are missing and presumed home. Many public servants are present and well loved in hospitals, schools, liquor stores and libraries. But the others stay home “doing the best work ever.”
Yeah right, thanks for nothing on global warming, biodiversity, overfishing, salmon habitat. I get five emails a day asking for donations to fix the above, when high-paid bureaucrats, hired to fix those problems, stay home, “working,” until the early and indexed pension is available.
Or else they jump ship to the upper management of the private industries they formerly supervised and win fat consulting fees.
It’s a crying shame, when we clearly need good guidance, that our expensive and expansive bureaucracy isn’t helping. I can’t suggest a solution, but I thank the editor for keeping the issue before us.
Jim Shortreed
Victoria
Adapt to change or step aside
Re: “A return to normalcy includes the office,” editorial, Dec. 22.
The editorial was condescending and demeaning to all the hard-working people in the employ of any level of government in Canada.
The statement that “public servants are supposed to be, in fullest sense, servants of the public” is right there with “I pay taxes; therefore, I pay your salary and as such you work for me.”
Why not call these people slaves while at it?
Yes, the many people in employ of the federal or provincial government and even the civic governments provide services to the public, but the old term “public servant” should be put away in history books. I think “government employee” is a much more appropriate term that one can use these days.
As for the number of days people work in the office, does it really matter? At the end of the day, it’s about whether the tasks were completed.
Long before COVID, both federal and provincial buildings became inaccessible to the public. People have been encouraged to use the various web sites or to call to make an appointment to meet with someone.
Expecting to waltz in anywhere and be served is long gone. These days we do online banking, renew car insurance over the phone … the list goes on and on. Is it really that important where the person providing the service is located?
As for supervision, teamwork etc., the times are changing, and with this, how we all managed all aspect of work and provided various services. If some people cannot accept that, it is time for them to step aside.
Marcin Jedynak
Saanich
Once again, Trudeau gives 91原创s his best
This past week have showed thousands of people stranded at airports, ferries and highways. Poor families trying to go see friends and family they haven’t been able to visit the past couple of COVID Christmases, and what does Prime Minister Justin Trudeau do?
Must be nice to have a private government jet to whisk him and his family off to a nice warm island to ignore the people paying for that flight.
Well done.
B.W. Lowe
Duncan
Citizens, take responsibility
A major snow and freezing rain event annually seems to be the new normal for our part of the world. The average 25-centimetre snowfall only once every three years hasn’t been holding, and it seems no longer agreeable to wait things out until the problem melts away.
Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto was the first to state that a different level of emergency response is needed for snow removal. However, how much is the multimillion-dollar question.
The City of Winnipeg, with an average 117-cm snowfall annually, budgets $30 million to $40 million each year and operates a fleet of 300 snow- and ice-removal vehicles. At this it still takes 2.5 days for crews working around the clock to clear an average snowfall there.
While complaining draws attention to a demand for someone else to do something else, that won’t solve the problem entirely. Citizens have a responsibility too. For the able-bodied, add a sturdy snow shovel and ice melt to your emergency response supplies. During a snow event do your snow clearing and where you can, clear a neighbouring area that needs attention.
If you’re not capable of doing your own snow clearing or prefer to hire the work out, plan ahead to have a few contacts on deck to do that for you. Have a snow shovel and ice melt available so any able-bodied person can do the job.
As a small strata, we knew that we would be last on the list for any snow-removal company to clear our parking area and sidewalks, so we went self-serve.
In the fall we signed up volunteers in the building to do snow removal and de-icing. We have five shovels, an ice spreader and an ample supply of ice melt. Four of us cleared our own parking lot and have kept our sidewalks and entrance completely bare, clearing our neighbour’s sidewalk as a courtesy to them.
We have also cleared the storm sewer drains on the street. And yes, all of us are transplants from places where there is nothing new about this normal.
Joanne Thibault
Victoria
Health-care crisis extends beyond B.C.
The health-care crisis is Canadawide, not an outcome of NDP policies in British Columbia. It is likely that New Democratic governments would have invested in keeping the health-care systems growing at the same rate as the day-to-day need for care has grown.
How can B.C. Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon, with a straight face, call for Adrian Dix to resign as health minister because the province needed new hospitals and more medical staff in 2017?
B.C. did not make medical history when the first novel coronavirus hit 91原创 in 2003. The B.C. Centre for Disease Control recognized the potential threat of travellers bringing infection through 91原创’s airport and “had been increasing preparedness for pandemic threats for several years.”
The preparedness came from an NDP government. The staff at 91原创 General Hospital followed the plan. They had the equipment to limit SARS in B.C. to four cases from travellers and one infected health-care provider.
This important “non-event” has been forgotten. When COVID-19 arrived in B.C., health-care systems across Canada were already stressed. It is government sponsored, and perhaps governments were trying to keep the taxes down?
We also have citizens disregarding proven medical science. Do we blame the NDP for current disease outbreaks or just for there not being capacity to deal with the results?
Heather Phillips
Sooke
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