Working to ensure we get the best care
Re: “Our health superiority is a fabrication,” letter, Aug. 10.
For the second time in 18 months, we would like to address mischaracterizations Dr. Paul Fenje Jr. has made about the College. In February 2022, he incorrectly characterized the College as believing medical training and education in Canada was “superior to all worldwide.”
We are disappointed this publication agreed to publish another letter from Fenje, who makes the same mischaracterization of the College’s position on international medical graduates (IMGs).
We share the concerns Fenje and other British Columbians have about the physician shortage. This is a complex issue with no simple solution, and the College has been working with the provincial government and other partners to address it directly.
While the results of this work may not be immediate and much more needs to be done, it is not helpful for productive public discourse when baseless allegations are allowed to proliferate.
It is ironic that Fenje accuses the College of perpetuating “propaganda” without “a shred of evidence” when he is the one ignoring facts.
By respectively making and allowing such statements, Fenje and this publication are ignoring how 30 per cent of physicians and surgeons licensed with the College obtained their medical degrees outside of Canada from approximately 120 countries.
Also being ignored is how the College and the provincial government plan to increase the number of IMGs practising in B.C. by expanding the Practice Ready Assessment program and introducing two new classes of licensure for IMGs. These efforts to expand licensure pathways for IMGs aim to improve patient access to high-quality health care.
The College’s role as a regulator is to ensure those who apply to practise medicine in B.C. meet necessary requirements and have the appropriate qualifications no matter where they graduated from medical school.
These standards and requirements do not hold one country’s medical education system above another. They are in place to ensure British Columbians receive the best possible care from their physician or surgeon.
Heidi M. Oetter, M.D.
Registrar and CEO
College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C.
Helping a few people at $70,666 a head
Let me see if I have this right. Currently, on a summer day there are about 3,750 users of the Galloping Goose and Lochside trails. In the fall through spring I suspect it drops about 10 per cent of that, based on all the empty bike racks in town at that time of the year.
They are projecting that by 2040 there may be 4,500 summer users of the trail.
Therefore the Capital Regional District is proposing spending $53 million for an incremental 750 users. Assuming the CRD is right, which in itself is problematic, that works out to $70,666 per new user. If the CRD is wrong, which is likely based on the sewage plant costs and current sewage pellet issues the taxpayer may be funding a $100,000 plus boondoggle per person.
That is only for seasonal users by 2040.
Surely there are better uses of $53 million such as permanent housing for the street people, more police etc. the list goes on.
The CRD needs to focus on real everyday issues which benefit all taxpayers.
Chris Sheldon
Saanich
Victoria could learn from European cities
I wish to add my voice to the recent rounds of letters regarding architecture in Victoria. I am on a multi-month journey through Northern Europe and Scandinavia. Many of the cities I have visited are similar in size to Victoria and share the same cool, maritime climates. However, that is where the similarities end.
I am currently in Oslo, Norway, which is slightly larger than greater Victoria. The offices and apartment/condo buildings here show great variety, interesting designs and often mimic works of art.
Creativity and stunning designs are encouraged and promoted. Pedestrian streets, bicycle paths, extensive public transit networks are a marvel.
The nine-kilometre-long water walkway in Oslo is a stunning mixture of restaurants, accommodations, offices, marinas and art galleries.
Historical buildings are rehabilitated, and the suburbs far from the downtown core are full of character and prosperous.
Similar standards are shared by Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Helsinki and other cities. Why do Victoria city councillors and administration ignore the potential that the city has by stooping to a philosophy of the lowest common architectural denominator?
Newer buildings in Victoria tend to be concrete, shoebox shapes. For variety, occasionally patios may be added. The designs would not even be acceptable to the light industrial warehouse districts in Winnipeg!
The only consideration apparently given by city planners is increased density, regardless of the architectural standard. Yet it is apparent that the European cities have far higher densities than Victoria, without sacrificing the visual integrity of their cities.
Why can’t similar planning standards be set for Victoria, that northern European cities flourish under? If architects and developers in Victoria are not embarrassed or ashamed by their building designs, they should be.
It should be mandatory for all architects, developers, city planners and councillors to take architectural training from European universities before given a permit to build the bland buildings that the city promotes. If Victoria is to be a destination city for the world, then planning standards must improve dramatically.
At the same time, I have not witnessed in any of the cities I visited, the same degree of drug use, crime, aggression and squalor seen on Pandora Avenue and the rest of downtown. Why does the city refuse to follow the successes of treating the drug abusers and chronic criminals that Europe has achieved? Shame!
Peter Davis
James Bay
Extend landline charge to all those cellphones
Re: “911 service faces funding crunch,” Aug. 13.
There seems to be an easy way to alleviate the funding crunch being faced by the 911 system that would return the burden back to the end users. Why not simply add the very small 911 charge to the cell phones which according to the article are fast replacing the “land lines”?
In my family, there are 11 cell phones. If the current landline charge of 66 cents per line/numbers was applied, it would add $7.26 to the 911 budget. Also, our 11 cell phones double our current landline numbers, so in our family, the contribution to the 911 system would virtually double. Although I am generally against tax increases, this one is warranted. It returns us to the “user pay” concept and provides a much larger source of revenue to the 911 system- a win-win for all!
K.L. Fry
Saanich
Pet area on ferries is human torture
Re: “No reservations possible for a weekend ferry,” letter, Aug. 10.
The writer might try doing like the rest of us. We have an oversize vehicle and are required to use the lower deck and are not allowed to stay with our dog in the vehicle. We must go to the torture chamber B.C. Ferries calls “the pet area.” This space is adequate for pets, but the seating provided for the humans is far too high for comfort for more than a few minutes. It is a perch. Try it for an hour and a half!
We have commented on this to B.C. Ferries and the response was to the effect that they are allowing pets on the outside decks on some ferries.
So, we can choose between perching or sitting outside in the cold and rain!
Julie Morrison
Sidney
Cabinet shuffle missed an important portfolio
Re: “Cabinet is no place for window dressing,” editorial, Aug. 11.
A part of the cabinet window dressing we mustn’t forget is all the assorted hangers-on who go along with this — deputy ministers, associate and assistant deputy ministers, chiefs of staff, and uncounted public servants needed to “push around the paper” that all these federal government ministries churn out just to show that they are doing something to justify their existence.
It’s all an example of government gone berserk dividing itself ever increasingly into micro parts, even duplicating efforts with ministries with similar, but slightly different names.
I’m awaiting the day when Justin Trudeau appoints a Minister of Everything Leftover just to be sure he hasn’t missed any microcosm of Canadian life to regulate, govern and tax in some new creative way.
Here’s s suggestion, Mr. Prime Minister: a Minister of Oxygen, with the task of figuring out how the government can get us all to pay a tax on the air we all breathe. And, of course, there’ll be an oxygen tax rebate for the financially disadvantaged amongst us with the attendant mass of public servants administering the program.
David Waldie
Saanich
John Cleese is walking ahead of Justin Trudeau
Re: “Cabinet is no place for window dressing,” editorial, Aug. 11.
The editorial on the vastly bloated new federal cabinet brings to mind a hilarious episode of Monty Python.
A new British Minister of Silly Walks (John Cleese) demonstrated his portfolio by staggering around aimlessly. Life copies art.
Michel Brossard
Central Saanich
Ban pit bulls from the province
Re: “Badly injured greyhound on road to recovery owner thanks everyone who helped,” Aug. 10.
Sadly, for the dog and its owner, pit bulls are notoriously aggressive animals and were historically bred for one tragic reason: to fight other dogs for owners amusement and wagering on the outcome.
This behavior is now infused into its genetic code; to remove these locked-in attributes would take decades of breeding to reverse or nullify them. Sadly for this breed, like some others, selecting certain traits has had unforeseen deleterious effects on both the animal and collaterally for their owners.
Ontario has banned the breed from the province. Perhaps it is time for this province to consider the same approach.
Dogs are loved and valued companions, but sadly for this breed too frequently they do not meet this expectation.
John Stevenson
Victoria
Many lessons from Surrey police change
Re: “Esquimalt can take lessons from Surrey police fiasco, says mayor,” Aug. 9.
As a Surrey resident, and criminologist who has studied the transition, I can attest that the lessons are many — even if successive Surrey councils failed to learn them.
The first is that the process must be transparent and fully and openly involve residents throughout, from initial discussions to wherever the path leads.
This never happened in Surrey, and we still know few of the specific details.
Secondly, all conflicts of interest and connections with any of the police forces in question must be openly revealed, and politicians with such connections should not be voting. his also, shockingly, did not happen in Surrey where the city’s ethics commissioner ruled a councillor contravened Surrey’s code of conduct when he voted to end the transition from the RCMP while having family connections with the force.
Probably the most important lesson, one with long term impacts on community health and wellness, is that cities should not look at community safety through a policing lens.
Essential resources should not be sacrificed to policing costs. This is precisely what happened in Surrey — though it has received too little attention in the police transition debates.
Projects halted or delayed to cover the transition included an Indigenous gathering place, an ice rink complex, two community centres and libraries, land acquisition for a performing arts space, and a child-care centre. This most certainly did not enhance public safety.
Dr. Jeff Shantz
Department of Criminology
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Surrey
We can’t assume that the heat is temporary
Re: “The heat this summer is only temporary,” letter, Aug. 10.
The letter is incorrect in concluding that “climate alarmists will have to find a new cause celebre when temperatures fall back to ‘normal’ in a year or two.”
The facts about the January 2022 undersea eruption of Hunga Tonga volcano are correct, but fail to note that the rise of CO2 emissions from the anthropogenic burning of fossils fuels are more than 100 times greater than all of the volcanoes in the world combined, and have been accelerating well before the undersea Hunga Tonga eruption.
While it may be true that this year’s dramatic events of worldwide wildfires and flooding have been exacerbated by the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption, the effects are temporary, and predicted to fade within five to 10 years.
The Hunga Tonga eruption will contribute little to the success or failure of the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5C. Thus the need for changing from a consumer to a conserver society, especially in the “developed” world, as proposed by Trevor Hancock.
Hope is not enough. The issue rests on a new morality and ethical behaviour, based on the best scientific evidence, reason, logic, and the Precautionary Principle.
We cannot expect that in five or 10 years that temperatures will fall back to “normal,” even in a year or two, given our continued population growth and reliance on fossil fuels. Time will tell.
Thor Henrich
Victoria
Let’s slow down and change our bad habits
We can, and likely will, argue about global warming for years to come. What we cannot argue is that human mammals have been poisoning the earth since the dawn of the industrial revolution and probably before.
The oceans have been our urinal and the land our commode. In our thirst for materials to feed our materialistic fervour we celebrated the positive and ignored the negatives.
It seems an opportune time to slow down and identify some negatives. We need to change our bad habits.
Bill Carere
Oak Bay
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