Vehicle ban at odds with Beacon Hill park trust
I understand Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and council are considering a motion to close Beacon Hill Park to vehicle traffic. This action would be inconsistent with the park trust, whereby Beacon Hill Park was granted to the city in trust for public recreation and enjoyment.
You cannot ensure full public access to the park if vehicles are not allowed. Not all residents are capable of riding a bicycle, and not all residents live on good public transit routes. Is your intent to make access difficult for seniors with mobility issues, persons with disabilities, and those not fortunate enough to live within walking distance?
Most parking in the area is for residents only, so nearby street parking will be inadequate for visitors who are unable to walk, bicycle or take transit.
Please do not strip Victorians of their ability to enjoy Beacon Hill Park because of your ideological opposition to vehicle traffic. Seniors, people with disabilities and residents who live farther away have just as much right to enjoy Beacon Hill Park as do its immediate neighbours.
I strongly believe that any such motion would result in a court challenge to restore full access as per conditions of the trust.
Beacon Hill Park is not broken. Please do not try to 鈥漟ix鈥� it by destroying access for residents.
Darcy Houston
Victoria
Banning vehicles in Beacon Hill is ageist
Mayor Lisa Helps is talking about permanently closing Beacon Hill Park to vehicles. It was clear when the first closures happened that this was her goal. And now, with the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse, she will attain her goal of no vehicles except bicycles in the park.
I occasionally drive to the top of Beacon Hill and meet with a friend to chat and admire the view. When Helps鈥檚 new decree comes into effect, this option will not be available to anyone who cannot walk through the park and climb the hill. I know Helps counts on the young and fit to get elected; this restriction is truly ageist.
Phil Rogers
Victoria
Thanks for kicking us while we鈥檙e down
I am from Alberta. It is my opinion that having made that declaration deems me a less than desirable human being.
I will say this: Thanks to all of you who are kicking us while we are down. It鈥檚 not so great knowing that our neighbours to the west keep up the rhetoric about how evil Albertans are.
Oh, and you can rest assured that your wildest dreams will come true with the current decimation of the oil and gas sector.
Cory Ezekiel
Fort McMurray
Column said what聽needed聽to be said
Re: 鈥淎lberta is seeing the consequences of聽its own smugness,鈥� Lawrie McFarlane, May 10.
Thank you for saying what needed to be said, Lawrie McFarlane. It鈥檚 a scary thing living in a province with a premier with a God complex.
Lee Kent
Edmonton
Alberta should shift focus from fossil fuels
I could not agree more with the many points Lawrie McFarlane brings up regarding Alberta鈥檚 current state of debt and the history that created it. I am still hopeful that Albertans will realize that putting every ounce of effort into the fossil-fuel industry, especially oil, has a very hazy future.
They should stop the Trumpesque finger-pointing blame game and look at developing renewable energy sectors or areas of manufacture not being pursued today.
Mike Wilkinson
Duncan
Lougheed started Alberta鈥檚 savings fund
In his column, Lawrie McFarlane decided it was time to give Alberta and Albertans the single-finger salute, a right fuddle-duddle. Let me start with his distinct-culture comment. McFarlane suggests that if we start down that road everyone will follow. Perhaps he is unaware that Canada started down that road a long time ago. Remember Quebec and its 鈥渄istinct society鈥�?
He then takes on Alberta鈥檚 wealth and former premier Peter Lougheed. I don鈥檛 suppose he recalls that it was Mr. Lougheed who started the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund to save for a rainy day. Subsequent premiers have spent, then saved then spent again, but the 鈥渂lue-eyed sheik鈥� is the one who started it in the first place.
McFarlane also points to the public sector in Alberta being overpaid. He blames this on the government for overspending. Perhaps there might be a little blame to be placed on the public sector unions who demanded these salaries, benefits and alike. These unions fought tooth and nail for their portion of the largess with benefits and pensions unlike anything seen in the private sector.
In closing, McFarlane decides it鈥檚 time to disparage Premier Lougheed one more time. Let me remind the columnist of his own words: 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 reach back into history and find fault with an individual when no such fault was understood to exist.鈥�
Ron Sleen
Victoria
Lougheed was principled, used common sense
As an Alberta resident, I don鈥檛 recall a Conservative premier as good as Peter Lougheed was. Lougheed was principled and used common sense when he was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta. He knew better than to expect that oil booms would be around forever, (as he had previous work experience in the oil industry), ensured Alberta got the proper oil-royalty rates, saved money, built things up, and planned for the future.
This has not happened with any other Conservative government in Alberta that came after Lougheed was premier. Instead, oil-royalty rates were permanently changed for the worse, no money was saved, a flat-tax failure was put in, and utilities were deregulated, magnifying their costs greatly.
The results were that health care, infrastructure upkeep, seniors, students, teachers, and the vulnerable were badly neglected, and we have all paid the price for the Alberta Progressive Conservatives鈥� blunders.
Here we are again with the United Conservative Party. The UCP have done nothing but give big tax breaks to their rich corporate friends, and blow large amounts of money on things that have not benefited Albertans one bit.
Again, the UCP is making medical professionals, students, teachers, seniors and the vulnerable pay for their huge mistakes. The financial situation in Alberta was largely self-inflicted by decades of long-term Conservative fiscal mismanagement. Albertans certainly failed to learn their lesson, by supporting the UCP.
Dwayne Wladyka
Edmonton
Licensed hunters are true conservationists
It is not legal to hunt any juvenile bear, nor any bear in the company of a juvenile. Hunters take care not to orphan any cubs. They also prefer male bears because the males are usually larger and carry more meat.
The rather unfortunate term 鈥渟port hunting鈥� came about more than a hundred years ago to distinguish legal hunting from the formerly legal market hunting, that is, hunting wild animals and selling their meat.
In the late 1800s, game carcasses were shipped East to the cities by the trainload. This caused a dramatic drop in wild game populations and it was the hunters themselves who banded together to demand closed seasons and limited tags.
Few urban people today realize how much licensed hunters do for wildlife; most belong to wildlife associations, and the tag and license fees all go to pay game wardens, conduct biological surveys and buy wild lands for wildlife habitat.
Wild game is delicious, healthy to eat, and humans are the only predators who strive for an instant and humane kill. To be a good hunter, one must also be a naturalist; and hunters are the first-line sentries who report any abnormal situations such as diseases in wild populations.
And believe it or not, hunters also routinely drag stuck elk out of bogs or deer out of holes in the ice. I have more than once rescued injured wildlife (hit by cars, run down by dogs or even just starving).
The licensed hunter is the true conservationist; she wants to see healthy wildlife populations and healthy ecosystems to support them 鈥� and us.
Willi Boepple
Victoria
Refuse service if there鈥檚聽abusiveness
Re: 鈥淧lease be polite to retail workers,鈥� letter, May 12.
Any customer who is abusive to retail workers should be escorted from the store and told not to come back.
No essential-service worker should be subjected to any kind of abuse when risking their health by going to work.
To the customers who feel entitled to treat staff by berating them for doing their jobs and following the rules, you need to get over your temper tantrums and follow the rules yourself.
Be nice and stay safe.
Dorothy Mullen
Victoria
I can see clearly now that the smog is gone
From our perch up here in James Bay looking north, south, and east, it looks to me on a blue-sky day that Mount Baker, the Cascades and the Olympic Mountains are crystal clear.
In times past they have looked stunning but nothing like this.
I am guessing this is a result of the reduction in vehicle traffic on the highway from Bellingham to Seattle and fewer freighters in the Juan de Fuca Strait.
We will enjoy it while it lasts!
Annie Boldt
James Bay
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