Other pools are too busy, so try raising the money
I am puzzled about two issues in regard to the closing of the McKinnon Pool at the University of Victoria.
It would seem that neither the administrators, nor their families and friends, ever use any of the other pools in the region.
If they did so, they would be well aware that most of them are filled to capacity, from the time they open in the morning, until they close at night.
Why do these non-swimming academics seriously believe that local rec centres will “magically” be able to accommodate thousands more members?
Secondly, $1.5 million doesn’t seem like a great deal of money for updating the pool.
Are these brilliant academics completely oblivious to the fact that they could actually start a fundraising campaign online, just as millions of other people have been doing for the past 27 years?
Despite the fact I’m a senior on a fixed income, I’m quite sure even I could donate a few dollars. How hard can that be?
Marie E. LeBlanc
Saanich
Protest camp at UVic and the McKinnon Pool
I find it highly ironic that the leadership of the University of Victoria can find money to provide security and cleanup for the protest camps, which should never have been allowed to happen in the first place.
Yet somehow, they cannot find the money to keep the McKinnon Pool open. It is a rather bizarre scenario. As Cicero once said, “O tempora, o mores” — which can be translated to “Shame on this age and on its lost principles.”
Jeff Barnett
Oak Bay
Canadian Forces not the right answer
Victoria Coun. Jeremy Caradonna suggested last week that the DND could be engaged to assist in the unhoused and addicted crisis on our streets.
1. There is no such thing as a “Canadian peacekeeper” in the Canadian Armed Forces. There are only Canadian soldiers, sailors, and airpersons. CAF members are trained for peacekeeping duties only if they are being deployed on peacekeeping operations.
2. The Canadian Armed Forces is spread so thin that it is questionable that we would be able to defend our own shores.
3. The Bay Street Armouries is not “empty”. It is the home to several Primary Army Reserves and Cadets Canada units, and they train in that building virtually every day for about nine months of the year. It is a training building and has always been such.
4. People living on the street were aggressive and violent to first responders who are trained to deal with people like this and do deal with them every single day. What do you think the reaction is going to be to Canadian soldiers, warriors, who are not?
While I appreciate the sentiment of what Caradonna was trying to say, it’s far from an appropriate solution.
Sean Smith, UE, CD
Canadian Army (retired)
Campbell River
Is the wastewater odour noxious as well?
I was relieved to see the note in Saturday’s Times Colonist about the “possibility ” of intermittent odours from the wastewater treatment plant.
At last, the source has been found of the terrible stink that seeps into my house while I sleep, and which wakes me every time.
At least six times over the past six months, if not more. I have lost count.
This odour is definitely nauseous, but is it also noxious? Just wondering.
Sheila Hodgson
Victoria West
Dumping these patients due to where they live
My wife and I, both in our late 70s with serious medical issues, have received letters saying that as we don’t live in the Parksville Oceanside Primary Care area, it can no longer provide care to us.
When we moved to Nanaimo from Calgary in 2015, unable to obtain a primary care doctor in Nanaimo, we contacted and were accepted as patients at the Oceanside facility, disclosing that we lived in Nanaimo.
For nine years we received excellent service from our nurse practitioners and the clinic.
We have now been given six months to find a new provider (an impossible task with the huge waiting lists) and when unsuccessful, we’ll have to go to the Nanaimo walk-in clinic for our health requirements.
While I understand the need in these crisis times for community health-care facilities to do all they can to manage health-care demands, I am wondering if this is a new policy for our government which will apply to every community throughout B.C. for all public health services.
I can’t believe B.C. health care has fallen to a new low — cancelling patients because they can no longer meet the demand.
While I acknowledge that the government is doing all they can in this health-care crisis, this cannot continue with the ever-increasing demands, and “wack a mole” attempts to deal with it.
The health-care system in B.C. needs to be completely revamped.
David McFarlane
Nanaimo
People in encampments need a place to store their belongings
Before Victoria does another sweep of the street encampments, displacing the many tents and occupants, it should consider providing a location where those displaced can store their belongings, just as is provided for at the bicycle valet service.
That way their belongings will be held safe for them to return and pick up later.
This is not forever, it is for perhaps 30 days, where if the owner does not reclaim their goods, they will be destroyed.
Past sweeps seemed wasteful, just destroying belongings so the people affected have to start over again.
I’m sure the city has locations where this could be quickly set up to provide, say, 100 storage cages, numbered so the owner can be identified, and kept secure.
Many of the homeless claim they cannot leave their belongings for fear of them being stolen, so this would provide an opportunity to seek employment or attempt to find housing elsewhere, knowing their items are safe.
When a sweep happens, the people affected should be told that they will be able to get their things later if they provide their names and accompany their belongings to where they will be stored.
Ernie Kuemmel
Oak Bay
Actions speak louder than the F word
Fifty years ago, science told us that continuing to burn fossil fuels would lead to dangerous levels of global warming, creating climate havoc, exacerbating drought, and contributing to the wildfires ravaging B.C. today.
Did that knowledge stop us? No.
We continue with business as usual despite all the scientific evidence, warnings, and facts — and hard work of many, most especially Saanich-Gulf Islands MP Elizabeth May.
I understand her anger and remorse. Given all that she has done (and continues to do) in service of a better future, it seems we might cut her a little slack for perhaps using the wrong word.
And maybe the rest of us might channel our frustration with the “status quo” into making certain all candidates in all elections understand climate change is real and human-caused, and threatens our childrens’ future, and are running for office because they want to do something about it.
Karyn Woodland
(another cranky, angry boomer in)
Colwood
Protect students from real dangers
The B.C. government rejected the recommendation of provincial health officer Bonnie Henry regarding granting access to safer supply drugs without a prescription.
The government could just as easily require school boards to reintroduce the school police liaison officer program and reject the position of B.C. human rights commissioner, Kasari Govender, who opposes the program.
The government recently released statistics that gangs are involved in 46% of homicides.
The debate has played out between school boards, police departments, municipal councils and the commissioner, and students remain exposed to these dangers.
It’s time for the government to take action and override theories that the program could cause anxiety for some students and focus more on protecting students from real dangers.
Wayne Cox
Saanichton
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