Please slow down and think of Leila Bui
Re: “Teen in hospital after being hit by car in front of Sooke school,” Dec. 13.
Yet another child — this time in Sooke — is hit by a car.
I am a professional gardener commuting by truck to multiple job sites from Dallas Road to Deep Cove on a daily basis.
I have spent a lot of time in traffic over the past decade. Please, fellow drivers, I implore you to slow down, wake up and watch out for pedestrians.
Every day, I think of Leila Bui. Every day, I witness young schoolchildren running for their lives across crosswalks. This is no exaggeration.
Seems the attitude out there with many drivers is “who cares?” as long as I make it to work on time and get home for dinner on time.
Please just leave a little earlier, take a deep breath and think of Leila Bui every day.
Driving conditions in these dark, wet days are fraught with potential accidents waiting to happen.
Please take care and live responsibly.
Tracy Wragg
View Royal
Pedestrians: wear reflective arm bands
This letter is a reminder for pedestrians to please wear something drivers can see in the dark.
Now that the light fades so early, all of you who looked fashionable during daylight and in the office wearing black are virtually invisible to drivers when you step off the curb.
Cyclists have set a good example with many reflective options and blinking lights.
I’m not suggesting pedestrians wear white in the winter, but for their own safety, a reflective arm band or small flashlight would give us drivers a chance.
C. Scott Stofer
Victoria
Night-driving eyeglasses for seniors
A suggestion to ICBC regarding night-driving eyeglasses: urge all seniors to use night-driving eyeglasses, and/or offer a discount to those who buy a pair (voluntary) or provide them free of charge.
Reason: Our municipalities are not up to snuff, making it difficult to see where one’s lane is. Lackadaisical attitude, cheap paint, no reflection, no common sense.
ICBC should identify and report shortcomings of all roads deemed inadequate.
Our politicians should do the same, as they are supposed to look after our interests.
Our insurance rates would come down if common sense prevails.
Stuart Gustafson
Saanich
Canada needs to help fight to eradicate polio
The world has been fighting polio for almost 70 years, beating it back to tiny final reservoirs in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The goal is to at last eradicate this terrible, incurable disease as we did smallpox, and it’s within our reach.
Canadians tend to be complacent about infectious diseases “over there,” believing borders will protect them, yet AIDS, SARS and numerous other diseases show this to be a false sense of security.
Despite decades-long efforts, new polio cases suddenly appeared this fall in the Philippines and just now in Malaysia, a huge distance from known sources. As long as it exists, the disease can suddenly erupt and spread anywhere, even to countries like Canada, where so many increasingly refuse vaccinations.
Our grandparents will remember the dread of polio, and perhaps even knew a victim. Unlike them, we have a choice: The agencies responsible are heading a massive push to destroy this virus once and for all, but need money. It’s critical that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledges Canada’s share of funding to complete this critical task.
Oliver Mark
Saanich
Accept wage offer, compromise on rest
Regarding the Western Forest Products strike: United Steelworkers is asking for an 11 per cent wage increase over four years, while Western Forest Products is offering a wage increase of 10.5 per cent over five years. From a common-sense approach, we can say that the wage portion of a new contract is satisfactory and the United Steelworkers should agree to Western’s offer.
Currently, manufacturing employees are working four 10-hour shifts and the logging employees are working four days on, four days off. The United Steelworkers want to do a 40-hour work week in a five-day working schedule, but Western will not agree , according to union president Brian Butler, and yet Western CEO Don Demans is saying they would.
From a common-sense approach, Western should compromise and return to a five-day work week. There is no cost savings from working 10-hour shifts over four days and four days on, four days off from the traditional 40-hour, five-day week.
United Steelworkers want Western to update its alcohol and drug policy; as it is now, an employee can lose their job for very minor violations.
Butler says Western Forest Products is bringing in over billion-dollar incomes, but fails to realize that expenses are on the rise at the same time, and wages and benefits are a major factor in these rising costs.
Western’s net income in 2016 was $94.2 million, in 2017 $74.4 million and in 2018, $69.2 million — a decrease of 26.5 per cent from 2016 to 2018.
Butler also fails to realize that B.C. is not the only lumber manufacturer in the world. B.C. is in competition with other countries.
When a contract offer is close to within reason for both parties, let the workers have their say in a vote.
This strike has gone on for far too long. Accept the wage offer and compromise on the other outstanding issues.
Joe Sawchuk
Duncan
Bargain hunting at B.C. Transit
Re: “B.C. Transit pays $2,500 each for fare boxes instead of $13,000 after hunting online,” Dec. 12.
Kudos to B.C. Transit for thinking outside the box.
We need more of that kind of thinking in government — at all levels.
Jonathan Stoppi
Saanich
Former councillor should pay costs
Re: “Don’t scale back byelection process,” Dec. 12.
The letter writer isn’t the only one who finds Laurel Collins’ action troubling.
A councillor is not elected to be an employee; his or her job is to serve constituents in a managerial role and steward their resources for a certain term. By running for election and accepting office, a councillor undertakes a social contract with voters: Barring any illness or personal catastrophe, that person makes a commitment to serve (there’s that word again!) for the full council term.
One wonders just when Collins knew she’d want to run for a federal seat. Was it even before the municipal election? Regardless, by using her elected position as a springboard to lucrative federal politics, Collins has broken that social contract with the citizens of her municipality.
If she’s not willing to pay the considerable cost of the byelection herself, she should at the very least return all the monies paid to her by the taxpayers of Victoria for her short turn as a federal-MP-in-waiting.
Dolores Bell
Victoria
More ‘façadism’ might be better
Re: “Project in Victoria’s Old Town divides heritage community,” Dec. 5.
While the façadism debate over the Duck’s Building carries on, no one seems to be paying attention to the buildings that the Chard and University of Victoria proposal has flanking it. This is about the worst example of computer-generated architecture imaginable. The city should require that the façades of these buildings match, in some 1890s style, the façade of the Duck’s Building.
Bob Miers
Saanich
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