Get up a bit earlier, save a child’s life
I’m flabbergasted that people try to drive past crossing guards with children on the road, and actually think that it’s OK to do that! How can two minutes of consideration for others make such a disastrous difference to their commute?
Crossing guards and children can help by taking down the licence plate and make of the cars that do this. There should be a hefty fine for offenders.
Is the time taken for your drive to work more important than a child’s life? Get up five minutes earlier, for heaven’s sake.
Rosemary Garnet
Victoria
Planting more trees of little help to Saanich
Re: “Facing tree deficit, Saanich considers planting 10,000 trees a year,” March 9.
When I saw the photograph of the mayor of Saanich leaning against what appears to be a large diameter redwood, I almost choked on my breakfast bagel. My immediate thought was, “Where’s the axe?”
The sheer hypocrisy of Mayor Dean Murdock proclaiming, “We’re obviously losing trees and need to up our game …” while the newly elected Saanich council is rapidly cementing its reputation as a gang of Paul Bunyan’s is hard to stomach.
The recent development decision in the Swan Lake neighbourhood is a case in point where Saanich council acted on its housing strategy at the expense of all other strategies and official plans aimed at making Saanich and the planet livable.
For example, to think that the planting of trees will compensate for the felling of mature trees including endangered Garry oaks is sheer folly and has no basis in science. The climate crisis is already upon us. The need to act now and to conserve carbon stored in mature trees is real and urgent.
The cutting down of mature trees immediately releases large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, a deficit that will not begin to be recaptured for 30 to 50 years by newly planted trees.
Meanwhile, making matters worse, we are losing the carbon sequestration capacity of the felled mature trees.
Anthony Britneff
Retired forester
Saanich
If we care about trees, what about Garry oaks?
When it comes to the retention of Saanich trees, Saanich Mayor Dean Murdock has zero credibility with the Swan Lake subdivision adjacent to the lake and nature sanctuary.
Ten days ago he and four Saanich councillors approved an Abstract project that will see a small forest of 50 endangered Garry oaks cut down.
Abstract’s project of high-end townhomes is designed to cater to speculators and high-income households.
Murdock’s declared commitment to affordable housing for Saanich families of ordinary means similarly lacks credibility.
Michael Laplante
Saanich
10,000 trees? How about 10 oncologists?
Saanich is certainly dedicated to its trees and to its bureaucracy. As a developer I’m very familiar with both after two years of dealing with Saanich to complete a simple one-lot sub-division. During those two years people close to me have needed the services of the oncologists at the cancer centre.
It’s there I found out they need to hire a further 10 or more oncologists as we all know waiting is never a good idea when you’re dealing with cancer.
It turns out housing is a major obstacle for bringing recent oncology graduates to our city.
Here’s my suggestion to Saanich council: you are the gatekeepers of all the housing that ever gets built in Saanich. If you don’t approve it, it doesn’t happen.
We have enough trees — try Google Earth and see for yourself — but we need housing for the people that keep us alive, so defer the trees and move housing approvals to front and centre, and remember condos don’t work for everyone.
We have built many houses for doctors over the years and they have different needs, such as location, but if it takes us two years to get a simple subdivision and a further two years for zoning and a further year to build, that adds up to a lot of interest payments, like $300,000 for five years.
The time line works for no one! Previous decades and previous administrations it took 1 year to buy an old house, subdivide it and build and sell.
Forget the trees and focus on the housing that’s desperately needed.
Brian Town
North Saanich
An idea that would hurt Victoria’s downtown
Victoria wants to charge citizens for parking up to 8 p.m. The downtown has already become more dangerous with the drug users that roam the streets with impudence, and the panhandlers that are a constant nuisance.
Visiting downtown has become a dodgy experience, and I just don’t think it is worth it to pay a parking premium for the privilege of patronizing a downtown business. I think this idea is shortsighted and detrimental to the health of businesses downtown.
K.C. Guise
Saanich
Get asphalt for potholes from bike lane bumps
The city must be planning to fill potholes all over the city as they have already strategically stockpiled mounds of asphalt every hundred metres or so across many bike lanes.
Doing this would not only repair and improve the road infrastructure, it would also remove the speed bumps on all bike lanes, making those lanes much more desirable for any cyclist.
Who is the idiot who thought that putting speed bumps on a bike lane was a good idea in the first place?
Chris Foord
Oak Bay
Return surplus to B.C. taxpayers
Re: “B.C. ministers struggle to spend budget windfalls,” March 8.
Let me assist the ministers in their struggle and suggest they return the money to its source: The B.C. taxpayer.
Brian Summers
Victoria
Cost no longer an issue in railroad renewal
Re: “NDP spending spree comes under scrutiny,” March 9.
Given the provincial government’s newfound determination to find ways of “rushing 2.7 billion last-minute dollars out the door,” it certainly won’t be able to claim “unaffordability” as justification for not supporting restoration of rail to the E&N corridor.
It would require only a minor portion of that spending bonanza to provide the Island with a high-quality freight and passenger train service, including amelioration of the Malahat Mayhem and the Colwood Crawl among other transportation woes.
Robin Farquhar
Victoria
Advanced consent for dementia patients
Some observers offer some positive glimpses on how to create occasions of “grace” with a person who has dementia. That is helpful.
Some others feel that a person giving their advanced consent is not ethical as they really don’t understand what that means as death may be some time away.
I have a friend who is has lived with dementia/Alzheimer’s for many years. He is in a very advanced stage and has been in a good care home for many years. He:
1. Cannot recognize anyone
2. Cannot bathroom himself
3. Cannot feed himself
4. Cannot speak
5. Is getting sores due to inactivity
6. Is not able to move at all unless he is physically lifted and moved in a wheelchair
7. Displays zero understanding of his surroundings or any family visitors
8. And more…
He has been a very active and giving person who worked as an elementary teacher, school administrator, was an active participant in his church, and was chair of several not-for-profit boards. For me, removing his right to make an advanced request for medical assistance in dying is unconscionable.
Arrogant too.
I am anxious that our Parliament include people with diagnosed Alzheimer’s or dementia to have the right to be able to provide an advance request for MAID if they choose it, well before they become cognitively unable to give personal authority to do so.
Barry Rolston
Victoria
No, it’s not perfect for new housing
Re: “A perfect win-win for elected officials,” letter, March 8.
Are you kidding? That 35-acre parcel surrounding Government House is most definitely NOT “underdeveloped”.
It is a heartily loved and heavily used area available to all to enjoy.
Those who take advantage of it as such come from all over the city, not just from “toney Rockland.”
Try it. There are owls in there! Sheer treed loveliness, all of it open to us. And the gardening helped along by volunteers.
We need to keep all the natural areas we have, and add to them. Housing is needed, but not on recreational land.
Karen Nelson
Victoria
Clarifying handyDART fare-hike idea
Re: “It’s time to raise fares for handyDART,” letter, March 7.
I apologize to handyDART riders; my intention was to point out that people riding transit buses are getting one heck of a deal at the expense of taxpayers.
Many of our handyDART customers would probably struggle with a price increase.
Dennis Bourne
Saanich
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