Active commuting is higher than reported
The report that Greater Victoria ranks first in Canada, with almost 19 per cent using active transportation to get to work, is both interesting and rather misleading. Interesting, because every person getting to work on foot or on a bike means roughly one less car on the road in rush hour. Misleading because it’s based on the Census Metropolitan Area which includes everywhere from North Saanich to the Jordan River, when in fact most of the walking and biking to work happens in Victoria.
I investigated the 2021 census to find out how Victoria compares with other Canadian cities after seeing an article in The Economist last May about active transportation that rated the city of Victoria 382nd out of 794 cities around the world.
It included a table showing that Victoria was the highest ranked city in Canada (and second in North America after Ithaca in New York State).
The data in the census show that the Victoria is in a league of its own in Canada, with 32 per cent of commuters using active transportation to get to work, 22 per cent on foot and 10 per cent on bikes.
Vancouver ranked second at 18 per cent. Saanich, at 11 per cent, ranked fifth. The average for all Canadian cities is 6.5 per cent.
Locally Oak Bay and Sidney have quite high rates of active commuting, but the rest of the municipalities in Greater Victoria are around the national average.
Note that these are percentages not actual numbers; there were about 11,000 active commuters in Victoria in 2021, and more than 40,000 in Vancouver, which has a population over six times larger.
Incidentally, the figure of 18.7 per cent active commuting in metropolitan Victoria, an estimate from Statistics Canada apparently based on data in the monthly Labour Force Survey, suggests a significant increase over the 2021 census, when it was 15.3 per cent.
This is encouraging, but it gives no indication exactly where or how that increase might have occurred. For those details we will have to wait for the 2026 census.
Ted Relph
Victoria
Use cruise ships for treatment facilities
I am just one of many residents of B.C. who see the heartbreaking need for treatment of mental illness and addiction that is rampant in our province. Many suggestions have been put forward that would take a great deal of time to build facilities to house the treatment centres.
Could not the use of a (recently retired) cruise ship meet the requirements of most? Mental health, addiction treatment and job readiness training all in one facility, open to all of B.C. And no complaints about not in my backyard!
Patricia McNaughton
Victoria
Great idea to help, but it won’t work
A recent Comment page presented excellent suggestions concerning today’s mess on Pandora Avenue, including psychiatric hospitals, mental health care, compassion for new facilities and addiction treatment centres, for the homeless and others.
It is obvious what is required, but it cannot happen!
I spent most of my life in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, home for 75 years to the largest mental institution in the British Commonwealth, housing 2,000 patients. In the 1980s, the Saskatchewan government closed the hospital and the patients were released into “halfway homes” and who knows where else, likely places like Pandora Avenue in Victoria.
The government decided it was too expensive to operate the Weyburn hospital and the patients, some of them, could better manage their lives by going back into society with the proper meds. In most cases that plan has failed.
But the main reason today that hospitalization and treatment for the homeless, the addicted and mentally ill cannot be given, is because the Charter of Rights and Freedom will not allow a person to be helped against their will and many of these people refuse care.
There is no way the Charter will be changed, so unless some form of legislation is passed to override the Charter for specific health and safety reasons, we are stuck with the pathetic mess on our streets.
There are few things more difficult to change than bad legislation. The Charter is at the top of that list.
Jim Laing
Saanich
How about a health line for the rest of us?
How reassuring, our provincial government has launched a phone line to provide same-day access to opioid treatment. This line will provide same day connections to people in need to a team of doctors and nurses who are available seven days a week to provide life-saving opioid agonist medications.
Now if the government could only guarantee the same level of access to people who are not in need of drugs as a result of addictions, but rather those who require access to a GP for any number of urgent medical problems, medical imagery or even timely access to cancer treatment — then, and only then, would I would be impressed.
Bruce Cline
Victoria
Finally, a CFL game here in Victoria
I enjoy attending HarbourCats games every season, and regret that the team had to host a playoff game in Nanaimo.
However, I have also been a huge CFL fan since the 1970s when, once a year, my dad would take me on the ferry to see a Lions-Eskimos game at Empire Stadium.
As an adult, I have been to about 100 football games in every city across the league, including 10 Grey Cups — and always needed to travel.
I can’t think of anything more thrilling for this Victoria-raised sports fan than the upcoming game on our own turf. I hope the HarbourCats’ ownership can appreciate how much their unfortunate upheaval means to folks like me.
For once in my life, I can attend a CFL game in Victoria. That is literally a dream come true.
(My dad, age 93, died last month at the Jubilee. He’ll be with me in spirit at Royal Athletic Park.)
Colin Gardiner
North Saanich
Victoria council, set new priorities
If you asked people what does downtown Victoria need, how many would say a redesign of Centennial Square? How many would say we need large events of 4,000 people there?
Yeah. We need more people and more noise? We have lots of both.
I think most would say we need a solution for drug use on our doorsteps and the unhoused moved to shelters and services and help and we need less crime and graffiti and much more cleaning.
We need people to want to come to downtown to shop and eat and enjoy a feeling of safe and pleasant places to be downtown. We need fewer empty storefronts. Let’s do that first.
Lisa Tindall
Victoria
Non-native plants are not all equal
How come we don’t consider Sequoias as invasive species like Scottish Broom? They are certainly not native plants.
Chris Foord
Oak Bay
Cull Canada geese to stop the damage
The time has come to cull resident Canada Geese. Introduced to the Island in the 1960s and 1970s, their population now exceeds 6,700. These hybrid geese denude and destroy sensitive estuaries, foul beaches and playgrounds, threaten airports, and jeopardize local agriculture including grain and hay production and commercial market gardens.
The hazing methods we employ on our farm in Metchosin to thwart geese include dogs, strings, iridescent tape, and bear bangers.
Unfortunately, these methods have little lasting impact on resident geese but sadly deeply disturb migratory birds and local wildlife. Egg addling programs have had some impact but are extremely costly and cannot curb the exponential growth of our goose population.
What is needed is a coordinated regional action plan that includes declaring resident Canada Geese an overabundant species, reducing hunting restrictions, and encouraging more local hunters to take up the cause.
The Saanich Peninsula Agricultural Committee raised the flag in 1998 that resident Canada geese were an existential threat to agriculture on the island.
A quarter century later, despite multiple studies documenting the exponential growth and negative impact of resident and invasive Canada geese on the environment and human health and well-being, there is no action plan.
All we have is a lot of hand-wringing and calls for more studies. It is time to take decisive action, however unpopular this might be in the court of public opinion.
V.S. Mitchell
Metchosin
Victoria needs an architectural critic
Throughout Victoria many new buildings are in the process of design and approval. If these meet the policy needs of City Hall and the economic needs of the developer, few comments are received as to architectural values.
All too often we are presented with a rectangular mass “enhanced” with the wings of projecting balconies. We get buildings that are out of context with the surrounding neighbourhood.
Architectural criticism can play a role in shaping our built environment by offering insightful evaluations of architecture, including esthetics, functionality, and context. It serves to bridge the gap between architecture and the public, helping laypersons understand complex designs and their implications.
An architectural critic can assess buildings not just on visual appeal but also on their sustainability, accessibility, and integration with the surrounding environment and this can be important in our city with its many historic districts. By critiquing these aspects, they can influence both public opinion and future architectural practices.
Effective criticism can elevate the standards of architecture, ensuring structures not only meet current needs but are also adaptable for future requirements.
Furthermore, it holds architects accountable, encouraging thoughtful design that enhances human experiences.
Who will step forward, taking on this important public service?
Ken Johnson
Victoria
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