Younger people are showing the way
Re: “Apparel retailers see in-store repair centres as ‘the future’,” Oct. 31.
“You’ve come a long way baby!” Not a sexist chant inducing young women to become smokers, but rather a salute to the younger generations.
The article was both uplifting and fundamental in understanding how younger people view our existing lifestyles as wasteful and not sustainable. They get it.
The recycle and reuse mantra is ingrained in their attitudes and this article shines a light on just how much can be done.
It’s not only them but they seem to be leading society to a path forward that will give the planet a chance.
To have this piece in the same edition as the climate change atmospheric river article about new methods to save us was inspiring.
I have always seen the food reuse enterprises as a glowing example of progress we have made through publicity and education to the new way forward.
The sew-and-save idea is an astounding step back to the past that makes me smile.
Unfortunately, I’ve come a long way in years, but am only now appreciating the many ways young people will look after our little sphere in the universe.
Max Miller
Saanich
Home ownership and younger people
The CBC broke a story about widespread price-fixing in the rental market, enabled by software that lets landlords co-ordinate rent increases.
It’s no wonder Canadian renters feel left behind.
Looks like the cat is finally out of the bag.
But I can’t help but wonder if this practice signals a deeper, more fundamental reason that entire generations of Canadians feel like they were excluded from the real estate market: REITs.
Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) allow investors to pool real-estate holdings into tradeable securities. REITs are exempt from corporate tax.
REITs hold significant portions of Canada’s residential properties, including apartments, condominiums, townhouses and single family homes.
REITs consolidate a basic human need into convenient investment instruments.
In terms of incentive, REITs all but compel investors to demand ever-rising real estate returns. Private landlords and investors simply follow suit. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?
REITs were made legal in Canada back in 1993, which is right about when Canadian real estate prices began their earnest ascent toward the stratosphere. What a coincidence!
In 1993, I was still in high school.
No wonder so many young and middle-aged Canadians feel like they were cheated out of the prosperous lives their parents promised were waiting for them.
Canadians should feel ashamed for what we permitted to unfold in our real estate markets over the past 30 years — for crippling the futures of our children and grandchildren before they were even born.
What a waste.
Bill Stacey
Esquimalt
City should charge for residential parking
Recently Victoria council approved buildings without parking or drastically reduced parking on the basis that residents will use alternate transportation to their own automobiles, be it walking, bicycling or public transit.
Parking spots in residential or commercial buildings sell for as much as $30,000 to a high of $45,000. Victoria council is also considering the idea of constructing a new downtown parkade.
At $60 per month plus GST, parkades look like a bargain!
One thing that has not been talked about is street parking, with the exception of increasing parking meter rates. Since the 1970s, residential only parking has existed in the city as well as in some adjoining municipalities.
Residents can obtain a permit for residential parking for free.
Isn’t it time for our politicians to stand behind their philosophies about vehicle parking and charge an appropriate fee for this very valuable street parking asset?
Marty Cole
Victoria
Urban deer culls reduce the danger
It is good to see cities that are pro-active for urban deer culls, due to overpopulation, Lyme disease and cases of aggressiveness.
We just returned from Ireland, where they do the same thing, as do the head keeper in one of King Charles’ parks and areas in Alberta that present problems.
I had to veer for a deer in our lane again this week.
Earlier dusk now is a hazard for drivers and cyclists returning from work — dawn and dusk being deer’s prime feeding times.
Wandering in urban environments is not normal and is dangerous for them and us. Australia has to do a cull of kangaroo over-population.
Why can’t Greater Victoria deal with this danger?
Barbara Zielinski
Saanich
Manslaughter sentence is not long enough
Re: “Nanaimo man gets four years for pushing girlfriend off cliff,” Oct. 31.
Four years for killing his girlfriend? No wonder femicide is so rife in the world. “Manslaughter,” indeed. Try “man’s laughter.”
Hilary Knight
Victoria
Fairfield is not ‘like a war zone’
So federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre gets wind of a series of break-ins to a Fairfield running store and says “it is like a war zone.”
Wow. On Sept. 15, he claimed the carbon tax is “an existential threat to our economy, and our way of life,” and that it would bring “nuclear winter” to Canada’s economy.
While I feel genuine sympathy for the owner of the running store — it’s hard enough to run a small business even without the cost of break-ins — Fairfield is far from a “war zone.”
Perhaps Poilievre should visit this bucolic neighbourhood, and then take a look at an actual war zone, just so he can learn the difference.
As for the Canada carbon tax, the average household pays a few hundred dollars per year, and about 90% of the amount collected is rebated.
Does Poilievre really believe this is an existential crisis?
If he wants to see a real crisis, he should look at the disastrous effects of climate change, not just in Canada, but around the world.
I fear that in the next federal election, Canadian voters may fall for the hyperbole and elect this Trump wannabe. I hope I’m wrong.
Darwyn Stickle
Victoria
Natural evolution to nuclear power
In 1945, the United Nations was created to end war and promote peace. By all accounts, they have been less than successful.
Somehow the organization morphed into a massive bureaucracy that now instructs the world on how to achieve what it considers to be an optimal global average temperature, to within one-tenth of a degree, no less.
For some perspective, consider that the climate has fluctuated between tropical and ice ages over 600 million years. During that time, scientists estimate temperatures varied roughly between 10 and 25 degrees Celsius. The 20th century average was about 14 degrees.
Additionally, the UN tells us that the only solution to this supposed crisis of “non optimal temperatures” is to eliminate human CO2 emissions.
Again, for perspective, consider that over these 600 million years CO2 levels are estimated to have varied between 7,000 and 200 parts per million.
It is currently around 400 ppm.
Greenhouses regularly improve plant growth by increasing CO2 to 1,000 ppm with CO2 generators. Life began at CO2 levels over 4,000 ppm, and at CO2 levels below 150 ppm plant life cannot survive, which means the end of all life on the planet.
Thus the more imminent existential threat is some unexpected dramatic drop in CO2 levels.
Without any interference from the UN, progressive governments and climate activists, energy production over time will naturally evolve toward nuclear power.
This is already occurring with major corporations such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft planning small modular reactors to power future artificial intelligence requirements.
So fossil fuel use will gradually decrease without inflicting massive global financial costs and a reduced quality of life for billions of people.
Fred Kardel
Nanaimo
ICBC brings lower insurance costs
The Conservative Party of B.C. proposed to end ICBC’s monopoly on basic auto insurance as part of their campaign platform.
The claim, of course, is that competition in the marketplace will drive down costs.
I recently moved from Alberta, a province that has only private insurance companies, to British Columbia. The cost of my car insurance is notably lower in British Columbia.
I am a senior with a good driving record. I drive a 2014 Toyota Corolla.
In Calgary, I was insured with Certas Home and Auto Insurance. My monthly premium was $183.67 per month with $1 million third party liability insurance and $500 deductible for collision and comprehensive coverage.
My monthly premium for the same car with ICBC is $84.89 per month with $5 million third party liability and $300 deductible for collision and comprehensive.
To sum up, with ICBC, I am paying less than half the amount I was paying in the “competitive marketplace” of Alberta, and I am getting better coverage.
Alberta has the most expensive auto insurance premiums in Canada.
It appears to me that the main beneficiaries of ending ICBCs monopoly are not citizens/customers, but the private insurance companies, whose market share and profits would increase.
Diana Salomaa
Nanaimo
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