Trail along tracks would make matters worse
Re: “Trail along old E&N line would cost $172.7 million and bring economic benefits, say advocates,” June 11.
Vancouver Island’s seriously damaging and dangerous transportation problems are worsening as the relevant authorities dither, from the Colwood crawl to the Malahat mayhem and the Oceanside amble.
The most promising and perhaps only realistic solution to these problems lies along the E&N rail corridor, an available resource that is awaiting decisions about its future use.
Several options have been proposed for ways in which the corridor could contribute to resolving the Island’s transportation problems, but a recreational trail for bikers and hikers is not among them.
Such an unwise use of this precious resource could well exacerbate our real transportation needs while addressing a “need” that we really don’t have.
Robin Farquhar
Victoria
Many questions, so let’s work together
To the proponents of expropriating the Vancouver Island rail line and repurposing it for a 300-kilometre pedestrian trail, you’re suggesting you will be consulting with First Nations.
You also suggest that the owners of the rail line will be responsible to remove the existing tracks. This leaves me wondering if you’re truly interested in the greater good. And there seems to be a few gaps and/or leaps there, so let me ask:
Will you also consult these actual owners of the property? A property that is still an active rail line.
Will you consult with the many people and groups still working to get rail service returned to Vancouver Island for the benefit of all (whether they use it or not — cars and trucks off the road, social equity, and stopping urban sprawl, and so on, benefit us all).
Will you consult with the people of Port Alberni that may see the largest and most immediate positive impact of freight rail? The same folks who are also currently recognizing that if there was a rail line right now their communities would not be cut off by a single fire?
Will you consult with seniors and others that don’t drive and who struggle to make medical appointments, go shopping or other essential activities in Victoria or other centres along the line?
Will you consult cyclists and other trail users that would rather see the multi-use trail continue to develop along side the tracks, as it has been, instead of in place of them so that they can hop on and off the train and still use their bikes either to get to their final destination or to ride the most interesting parts of the trail?
I hope you will.
Because I wish you well and feel that, if you conduct this consultation, you’ll learn that the multi-use path alongside the tracks is infinitely more practical.
We need rail as part of a modern transportation network on the island.
This need is not going to diminish as we grow and top one million in population.
And proactively supporting active transportation within this same network is critical to our future.
Such consultations leading to a more inclusive, practical, and future-oriented plan could provide a positive step for the future of Vancouver Island. My hope is that rather than opposing and undermining the efforts of groups such as the Vancouver Island Transportation Corridor Coalition, you’ll find a way to join with them to work together for the greater good.
Bill MacGougan
Nanaimo
Restore old rail service for a better future
Fires such as the one at Cameron Lake are the single best reason that our rail system should be restored on Vancouver Island. Fuel, food, emergency supplies could be moved to emergency-stricken areas. The primary economic benefit: one litre of fuel will carry many multiple times in weight of goods than a truck can.
Rail systems are reliable and can be used even though the weather might not be good. Highways are closed based on ice, snow, heavy rains. We need to restore the rail system as soon as possible.
The idea of ripping up the rail line and making a recreational trail is a greeniac fantasy.
Restoration of a real efficient rail service for people and goods would benefit the entire Island far into the future.
Gary and Sybil Kangas
Metchosin
We are depending on decisions made long ago
It is ironic that as a result of a forest fire, the only access to 30,000 residents on the west coast of Vancouver Island is by logging roads constructed 70 years ago by forest companies who used them to harvest “old growth.”
It is also ironic that the E&N right of way, a viable transportation corridor created 140 years ago, could have been made available to provide an alternate connection between all of the communities on southern Vancouver Island, including Port Alberni.
One would hope that as a result of recent events that our elected representatives and their functionaries might have the foresight and construction capacity demonstrated by the people of Vancouver Island in the not-so-distant past.
Brian McDaniel
Cobble Hill
School board decision was supported by data
Re: “School liaison decision should be based on accurate information,” commentary, June 10.
Victoria Police Chief Del Manak and I must have watched a different meeting.
When trustees voted to end the school liaison officer program, they said their decision was based on: letters from former students and others who reported unsafe experiences with school liaison officers; years of study by a committee, which included police; and the B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner’s call to end school liaison officer programs.
Manak attributes to a trustee numbers they quoted from the Support Network for Indigenous Women and Women of Colour, who provided several statistics on police actions, not just for youth, based on VicPD data.
SNIWWOC’s letter is at sniwwoc.ca/blog.
Manak did not challenge other figures in SNIWWOC’s letter, also based on data from his department, that show that VicPD disproportionately polices BIPOC youth. While only five per cent of Victoria and Esquimalt’s population is Indigenous, for example, Indigenous youth make up 19 per cent of the youth VicPD label “suspects.” And Black youth are almost four times as likely as white youth to be listed in a VicPD general occurrence report as “charged.”
The survey Manak said found an “overall positive” opinion of the program found dozens of respondents, including students, reported negative interactions with school liaison officers.
Trustees said they voted based on their duty of care to all students, including students who told them they have been harmed by the program. The board’s call for the province to invest in alternative student supports, like counselling, was well supported after years of study, and responds to students’ needs.
Stephen Harrison
Esquimalt
Serious discrepancy in police statistics
The recent commentary by Police Chief Del Manak contains some serious allegations regarding the Greater Victoria School Board’s decision to end the school police liaison officer program.
One example is that a school trustee stated that in 2019 VicPD submitted 128 incident reports for arrest at school or on school property, but Manak says that their records show only two arrests of that description in that time period.
A discrepancy that large can only mean that either Manak or the trustee is providing entirely fabricated information, and I can see no reason why Manak would risk his reputation that way.
It would appear that the school board has an agenda to eliminate the school police liaison officer program, and is willing to give false statistics to back their argument. This needs to be investigated by the provincial government.
If the trustees cannot provide statistics to support their position on this very important program, they should be appropriately disciplined, and the program should be reinstated.
Stephen Pierrot
Saanich
Next, get those nurses out of our schools
I think the Greater Victoria School District should unanimously ban all school nurses ASAP. What can be more scary than a nurse with a loaded syringe in the eyes of a child/student?
I should know.
Anne Boldt
Retired nurse
James Bay
Have a scandal? Here’s what to do about it
If any of you have something scandalous going on that you want to sweep under the carpet, you could learn a thing or two from how the feds have handled the public inquiry into foreign interference: set up a minor scandal (appointment of David Johnston) that totally distracts attention from the issue you are really worried about (foreign government interference in Canadian elections).
Kenji Fuse
Saanich
Hunting for fossils brought him to his knees
Re: “Fossil hunting on England’s Jurassic Coast,” June 10.
The travel feature brought back lots of memories of a hike there.
The best is almost being blown off the top of the cliffs, such was the extreme wind along a very narrow coast path. Our only possible alternative to being cast off into the sea was to crawl across the cliffs on hands and knees.
Luckily, the only witnesses were sheep. They ignored us as they had obviously seen this done before.
Christopher Causton
Victoria
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