Psychiatric hospitals in every region
Considering the numbers of “hard to house” addicts living on the streets and parks of the cities and towns of B.C., there needs to be a psychiatric hospital built in every region.
Whoever decided that addicts should be housed with senior citizens who are paying for their rooms and care, and are following the rules of said facility, should be re-thinking that plan before someone, whether it be a staff member or a resident, gets killed or seriously maimed.
I would like to hear from Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Bonnie Henry about why they are still promoting free (paid for by the taxpayers of B.C.) drugs to addicts when their programs are obviously not working.
Petra Janusas
Qualicum Beach
Mental health care for all of B.C.
Re: “Psychiatric hospital is needed in B.C.,” letter, Aug. 23.
This letter accurately describes the need for primary care mental health and addiction recovery centres in the province. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand the need. Just look around our communities.
The government has no hesitation in building acute care hospitals, including financial support for a children’s hospital and women’s hospital. This is in addition to the B.C. Cancer Agency and the B.C. Ambulance Service.
We need at least four of these centres; two on the Lower Mainland, one on Vancouver Island, and one in central B.C. Another challenge here will be recruiting/training the professionals to staff them. This is an ongoing and current circumstance in the health-care sector.
For some strange reason, successive governments have refused to acknowledge and treat mental health and addiction as worthy of the intensive, accessible, and contemporary medical and related health-care intervention they deserve.
The existing patchwork of recovery organizations is not working; primarily because there are too few of them and there is no centralized access to them. They are not staffed with appropriate resources.
B.C. is a geographically large and diverse area and needs mental health services that recognize this fact. It is a sad reality that we continue to disregard the need for mental health and addiction recovery centres for those who need and want this service.
John Stevenson
Victoria
Refusing treatment, then blocking a bed
Re: “Island Health plans facilities for hard-to-house patients after nurses complain of safety risks,” Aug 20.
Violence against nurses, inadequate psychiatric bed supply and treatment for people with severe mental illness will all get worse if a challenge to the Mental Health Act under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is successful.
The challenge brought by the Council for Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), if successful, will enable some involuntary patients to refuse the treatment that they require to recover and be released from detention.
A case in Ontario illustrates the problem. A man had a capable wish not to be treated. So, when admitted involuntarily, his violent behaviour could not be treated medically.
The only alternative was solitary confinement. He stayed there for 404 days out of five years, detained but not treated. He was only treated successfully after he attacked and severely injured a staff member.
All studies of treatment refusal, which the CCD argue is necessary under the Charter, show higher rates of violence against nurses and fellow patients.
Because they cannot be released, the people who refuse, block beds.
During five untreated years, 120 admissions, on an average of two weeks, could have occurred. Patients not only continue to suffer but are also detained for long periods, violating their liberty and dignity rights.
Nurses and doctors become jailers providing substandard care, instead of healers. Fortunately, the government of B.C., through the attorney general’s office, is defending against this assault on human rights. Island Health, professionals, families, and people with severe mental illness should support the attorney general’s position.
John Gray
Victoria
Opposing needs in care facilities
Who in their right mind would house the most violent and uncontrollable in our society with people in long-term care homes — our most vulnerable — for one day, one hour?
This is not acceptable. This has to stop.
I thank the B.C. Nurses’ Union for sharing this information with the public. It is also unbelievable that we would put nurses, who are trained to provide life‑sustaining procedures, in harm’s way.
There are seniors waiting in the hospital for beds in Dufferin Place in Nanaimo, while the most violent and uncontrollable from our streets are taking their beds.
These two groups of people, needing opposite care, should have more appropriate housing.
Cheryl Williamson
Nanaimo
Compassion calls for new facilities
I am adding my voice to the need for psychiatric hospitals and comprehensive drug rehab facilities in B.C. and hope others will speak up.
Recent articles about the impact of small residential facilities housing a population of the elderly and frail along with the mentally ill with ongoing substance abuse problems is very concerning, along with the fact that every day, wherever we live, we see people on our streets who clearly are in need of care and are unable to make good decisions for themselves.
We would not let a dog live on our streets in the sad condition of many of the people I see. The current situation forces us all to harden our hearts to what we witness as it seems so hopeless.
This is not good for society. Further, we are allowing our urban centres, their businesses and residential areas to be terribly impacted by the ever-expanding needs and numbers of the unhoused and out-of-control.
Yes, building new psychiatric facilities will be expensive, and strengthening compassionate involuntary treatment options, not eliminating them as some groups are advocating is controversial but otherwise, we will continue to dedicate enormous resources to policing and finger-in-the-dike initiatives, and see a continued degradation of our public spaces and neighbourhoods.
Jennifer Margison
Galiano Island
Different reasons for that tax increase
Re: “Saanich expenditures need to be reined in,” letter, Aug. 24.
As a Saanich resident I was taken aback by this letter, so I dug out my property tax notices for the past four years to compare.
The previous writer said his property taxes have increased by 49% in the past four years. Mine have increased 26.5% since 2021.
In 2023 and 2024 his taxes went up 14.1% and 11.8% respectively. Mine increased 7.7% and 10.1%.
You can Google “Saanich residential property tax increases” plus the year to find the average increases – mine are a little more than average. There has to be a reason, or reasons, why his have increased so much more than the average.
To calculate percentage increase in property taxes for this year, take this year’s amount, subtract last year’s amount to get the dollar difference, then divide that difference by last year’s taxes before any grants, then multiply by 100.
It’s important to use the amount of the taxes before any grants. My taxes went up 10.1% from last year, but the amount paid after the $845 in grants went up 12.6%. This is because the dollar value of the increase stays the same, but the amount after the grants is less.
Why would his have increased so much more than the average percentage? Possible reasons would include improvements that he had done that increased the value of his property, improvements done by Saanich that would improve his neighbourhood, or mathematical errors on his part.
If the first two reasons don’t apply, then the latter one is most likely. The 49% increase over four years, nearly double my increase, doesn’t appear to make sense.
Stephen Pierrot
Saanich
Consider social contract through these quotes
Regarding Trevor Hancock’s Aug. 25 column on social contracts, in Canada there seems to be two prevailing views on our collective responsibility.
These can be summed up by two quotes:
“It’s not my responsibility to feed my neighbour’s children.” — James Moore, industry minister in the Harper government.
“The business of government is to redistribute income.” — former prime minister Pierre E. Trudeau.
I leave it to the reader to decide which view best suits Hancock’s views on a new social contract.
Actually, while I’m posting quotes from well-known individuals, here’s another related quote:
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” – John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian economist and diplomat.
John Lacroix
Victoria
Public meeting space is a high priority
Re: “Saving the sequoia at Centennial Square,” Aug. 24.
What is being lost in all the appeals to save the sequoia (and fountain) is the original reason.
Yes, it is a lovely tree, I love sequoias but what Victoria needs is a meeting place where events of all sorts can be put on with the audience seated, standing or just milling around.
This requires a clear view and the ability to move freely for safety reasons.
I have lived in the region for nearly 35 years and Victoria has grown from small to the point of almost being crowded. There is now a shortage of open public meeting spaces and this is an attempt to open one up.
But I do agree with one objection to the plan — a splash park would be crazy.
Joe Harvey
Victoria
Riding a bicycle is not for everyone
It astounds me that bikers conveniently ignore certain reasons a lot of us simply cannot consider bicycles.
Such as:
Many seniors cannot ride bikes safely.
Many families have babies and wee ones … how are they supposed to be bike riders?
In a country where the environment is truly a difficult one to ride a bike every day of the year, snow rain, cold, biking is not an option.
Pets need to go to veterinary clinics. On a bike? I don’t think so.
When you are very sick or need a doctor due to pain, bikes don’t cut it.
Physically challenged people unable to bike anywhere should not be made to feel like a lesser citizen because they need to use vehicles.
Bikes are good for those folks who never ever leave the city, with teeny tiny worlds. There is a massive world out there that bikers miss out on.
I am all for bike lanes for those hale and hearty people who don’t own pets and are not physically challenged in any way and never have to take their grandparents somewhere.
The arrogance of avid bikers is a big part of the reason for such a divide between those who bike and those who can’t.
I wish I was able to be one of them. But I am a wobbly senior with bad eyesight. You don’t want me on a bike!!
Helen Price
Victoria
At the classic boat show, visit the Golden Rule
I am writing as a veteran to invite everyone to attend the Victoria Classic Boat Show on the Inner Harbour during Labour Day weekend. Be sure to meet with the veterans who crew the Golden Rule and learn the story of this amazing little craft.
Your grandparents will remember when nuclear weapons tests sent radiation into the atmosphere. They will remember a Pacific Island called Eniwitok.
The Golden Rule was the first ocean-going vessel to sail toward the Marshall Islands in protest of the threat that those tests represented.
The story of the voyage and its end helped bring about the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Later, at a meeting in Vancouver, the inspiration provided by the Golden Rule led directly to the birth of Greenpeace. She has quite a story.
The Golden Rule sank in 2010. She will be at the Classic Boat Show thanks to the efforts of Veterans for Peace, who spent five years raising and restoring her.
She returned to her original mission. For the past decade she has called at ports in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, educating tens of thousands about what can be done to stop the threat represented by nuclear weapons today.
The story of the Golden Rule is of special interest to veterans, maritimers, and all who wish to learn about the prospects for peace in these troubled times. Don’t miss it.
William S. Geimer
Sooke
They need to understand that we are fed up
After hearing Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto navigate the Josh Montgomery situation in recent days, I worry that she doesn’t seem to be getting the essence and spirit of the situation, which is: we’re all fed up.
We are fed up with getting attacked in the street.
We’re fed up with having to share fentanyl smoke on public transit and in hospitals.
We’re fed up with fretting about needles and broken pipes in playgrounds. We’re fed up with having our belongings stolen and destroyed with impunity.
All levels of government can keep blaming, deflecting and obfuscating as much as they like, but at the end of the day, the status quo is not working for anyone.
We all deserve a better solution that balances the dignity and livelihoods of those suffering from homelessness, addiction and mental illness, with the safety and rights of everyone else.
If this group of capable decision-makers can’t figure it out, then they should step aside and allow someone else to try.
Kevin James
Victoria
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