Re: 鈥淢etchosin mayor sounds alarm on CRD鈥檚 salary expenses,鈥� April 30.
To say we鈥檙e going to have a fiscal crisis 鈥渓ong before鈥� we have a climate crisis, I wonder if Metchosin Mayor John Ranns is watching the same news I am. We鈥檙e seeing a climate crisis unfold right now on our collective screens, from wildfires burning across our province and smoke that has choked those far away, to floods affecting Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, New Brunswick and many more towns and remote communities, to say nothing of the storms, droughts and everything else we are seeing across the globe.
As Ranns himself notes, the Capital Regional District spending increases we have seen in the past two years are directly related to (finally) moving ahead with building and managing a sewage-treatment plant for our region. I鈥檓 very pleased that after many years of discussion we are moving ahead with treating our sewage and liquid waste rather than dumping it raw into the ocean, despite the increase to my property taxes.
I hope that Ranns and other CRD politicians will acknowledge our collective responsibility in addressing the climate crisis. In the capital region, the largest contribution to greenhouse-gas emissions comes from the transportation sector. The CRD should move ahead with the creation of a regional transportation authority tasked with reducing GHG emissions through improvements to active transportation, including walking, cycling and public transit.
Edward Pullman
Saanich
