Lower speed limits are a waste of time
The new and proposed speed limit changes in Victoria are unreasonable and a waste of time.
The streets of Victoria are extremely congested through reduced roadways for motor vehicles (bicycle lanes reduced traffic lanes); traffic congestion (increased population and insufficient alternative transportation); and increased on-street parking (condominiums being built with insufficient parking).
This makes trying to achieve 40 km/h next to impossible.
In addition, given the fractious relationship between council and VicPD regarding budgets and staffing, as well as the pressure on the police regarding the homeless encampments and the increase in crime, enforcement would be extremely problematic.
There does not appear to be any proposed criteria for the success of the program in terms of quantifiable measurements, nor does there appear to be any financial analysis of the proposed changes.
Paul Morgan
Central Saanich
More appreciation for Sooke council
Thanks to Sooke mayor and council for standing up for the citizens of your community and voting down the housing bylaw changes required by the province.
It is about time that local governments pushed back on the bullying of the NDP government.
We often travel to Sooke from our Goldstream Meadows home in Langford to shop in the village and enjoy outdoor recreation.
Unfortunately, like travelling into the city of Victoria, we now have to schedule our visits around traffic.
Please continue to do what is best for the citizens of Sooke.
John Charlton and Colleen Kerr
Langford
Don’t dismiss Trump’s words as a joke
Nothing Donald Trump says should be taken as a joke. Public Safety Minister Dominic Le Blanc said the president was telling jokes and teasing us.
There is too much at stake to take such a frivolous attitude towards Trump or any of his sycophants.
Keith Laxton
Saanich
Our Canada includes two official languages
On a beautiful clear winter’s day, the view from the air as one crosses east to west is breathtaking; from bright white and browns, the scene changes to white and blacks and quickly hints at patches of green.
Other days, just as breathtaking is the change from Rocky Mountains to the foothills of Alberta and the white of the flatlands of the prairies travelling west to east.
Same Canada.
We have two official languages in Canada, French and English. It would be wonderful to have an official Indigenous one as well. However, in the meantime, all people in Canada have the right to learn and be taught in their cultural languages.
One of the difficulties for my wife and I on moving back to B.C. was accepting the fact that we would need to move to Victoria or 91原创 to allow our children to continue in the French immersion program they had started at four years old in Thunder Bay, Ont.
The program was fairly new almost 40 years ago, yet it was available in small-town B.C., albeit only to Grade 3 at the time. I remember being in Grade 8 here in B.C. in the 1960s wondering why I had to take French and by the last semester having had to move to Ottawa wishing I had taken it sooner.
To learn a language other than your own is perhaps one of the most mind-liberating studies in life.
Perhaps our premier could on a beautiful clear day fly from west to east and enjoy the contrast and appreciate the bigger picture and use this viewpoint to eliminate these petty issues with language funding; especially the placing of funding on the backburner for French schools in B.C., and especially with the federal funding that is available.
Mark Twain once wrote “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrowmindedness.”
John Evans
Brentwood Bay
Safe space needed for our woke readers
It’s amusing to see people out there in the suburbs clutching at their pearls and sobbing all the way into the letters page of the Times 91原创 as they contemplate their avocado toast breakfasts being utterly spoilt by the picture of Donald Trump jumping out at them daily from the depths of the paper.
Do these people not hear how snobbish and elitist they sound as they dismiss 80 million U.S. voters who had the temerity to turn a deaf ear to the kind of mindless Trump Derangement Syndrome expressed by their American counterparts?
Is there any way that the Times 91原创 can create a “safe space” with “trigger warnings” for these lamentably woke readers?
Trevor L. Williams
Victoria
Water bomber squadron could fight fires
Re: “Two per cent on defence against climate change,” letter, Nov. 30.
The letter suggests that money spent on combating climate change should count toward our two per cent of defence spending. I agree that we have a war on our hands, fighting climate change.
I recently sent a letter to various politicians, including the minister of defence, suggesting that if Canada wants to meet two per cent, they could do two things:
1. Build an emergency response battalion that can be used to fight fires, assist in flood and earthquake recovery, and provide worldwide disaster relief to war-torn peoples such as those poor souls in Gaza.
2. Create a water bomber squadron in the air force, with at least 50 planes. It is a shame to see nearly all the water bombers built in Canada are for overseas customers. In our winter months, such a squadron could be deployed overseas as well.
Mike Woods
Saanichton
The best way to get money from taxpayers
The recent comments on the subject of the Alternative Approval Process by municipalities and regional districts have outlined clearly the issue that the AAP is undemocratic. But, as a former executive level bureaucrat … it’s brilliant.
How else, for example, could I get a stash of $83 million for something that’s not even my responsibility (like the Capital Regional District’s last AAP for housing, which is the province’s job)?
And the communication people even helped … uh … why not announce the AAP to the public just before Christmas and close it right after New Year’s, because few taxpayers will even see it.
Brilliant! Easy! Bonus time for me! And while we are discussing undemocratic, unaccountable, out-of-control bureaucracies, take a look at the size of the CRD board and you get a pretty good picture that it’s best to bypass even them.
Michael Faulkner
View Royal
School district made a significant error
The president of the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association supports the policy determined by the Greater Victoria School District. Unfortunately, both organizations are relying on research not suited to our local context.
The perspectives voiced by municipalities like Oak Bay, Sooke and Saanich and the public who strongly support police officers in schools are either not listened to, or heard. The knowledgeable point of view of Victoria’s experienced and dedicated Police Chief Del Manak is also disregarded.
Bottom line: Both teachers and police officers are vital, and both require responsible budget considerations. When police officers are in schools, students and teachers are able to learn more about policing and law and order and work toward building positive relationships with each other.
The policy endorsed by both the teachers’ association and the school board of not having police in schools implies a negative perspective of them, taking away from the reality that police are our community friends and have important jobs to do that involve dealing with gangs in schools and protecting all citizens, young and old.
Police have to continually learn more about teachers and students and be sensitive to different needs and situations in order to do their work better.
The school district has made a significant policy error, should offer an apology for their mistake, even a muted one, and immediately rescind any existing policy restricting or banning police officers in schools. A more enlightened replacement policy allowing these officers to be available in schools is required.
Delia McCrae and Bob Lisevich
Sidney
Build ferries in B.C., or at least in Canada
So, the president of B.C. Ferries is already trying to lobby the Victoria Chamber of Commerce and B.C. taxpayers on how he will justify buying new vessels from foreign countries.
I do not understand how we have gone from building ferries in B.C. that last 60 years, to buying offshore vessels and being told they will last only 30 years and that’s OK. Along with this nonsense, we are being brainwashed into believing that more cost-effective vessels will be built offshore.
Our last batch of newer vessels have already required overhauls on their systems and mechanical parts, and they are only a few years old.
If we are to spend taxpayers’ money, would it not make more sense to build them in B.C., or at least in Canada?
We deserve to have our money spent here, creating good-paying jobs that will generate “compounded tax multiplier effects” that the government can then use to pay down debt or re-invest into more 91原创 infrastructure.
I’m not convinced sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Romania or other countries helps our workers, economy or generating 91原创 taxes.
That money is gone and generates those taxes in foreign lands. Only they will reap the rewards of our shortsighted vision.
Tim Kehler
Ladysmith
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