A bit of advice for winter weather
People curtail their outdoor activities because of rain.
For walking in the rain one needs waterproof trousers, skiing trousers help one to keep warm. However, waterproof boots and shoes are more difficult to find.
Many jackets are only rainproof for a time, although umbrellas are useful if there is no wind.
A relevant quotation is: “There is no inclement weather, only inadequate clothing.”
Audrey Lomax
Nanaimo
Eby is doing better for those in his caucus
This is what Premier David Eby stated after the election: “The voters of B.C. have made their choice and we hear you. We need to do better.”
But, did he really hear us? It turns out that the statement “we need to do better” actually referred to his caucus, and with the stroke of many pens he can rest assured that his NDP family is much better off with a raise for one and all to the tune of $2 million added to the payroll.
Not what I had in mind. It seems convenient for a new government that will be hanging on for dear life. As for the Green party and their talks with the government, I suggest they slap the hand in the cookie jar before any deals. I might have missed it, but I did not hear them question the raises.
Mr. Eby, I am now six months past an expired collective agreement with my employer, part of which is surely due to government policy. Before you dole out any more cash to keep your caucus smiling, keep the electorate in mind please.
“We need to do better” indeed. Because “We” are not amused.
Murray Ostler
Campbell River
The Saanich plan: When pigs can fly
Can’t understand why such a fuss is being kicked up over the proposed reduction of traffic lanes on McKenzie Avenue.
Anyone stuck in traffic will be able to latch onto one of the many airborne pigs flapping their wings over the congestion.
Eat your heart out, Uber.
Earl Fowler
View Royal
Removing problems using municipal logic
I like the logic of the letter writer who responded to the suggestion that reducing traffic lanes will make cars disappear. They used this same logic to suggest that if we halt residential construction, people will disappear.
I would like to add that this logic can also be used to suggest that we stop paying our taxes in the hopes that our municipal politicians will disappear, too.
Katherine Carlson
Saanich
Give consideration to community builders
I loved the recent letter outlining the time it would take a Ten Mile Point resident to get to Victoria General Hospital, but believe it missed a few crucial points, such as the wait time between connections and the possibility granny might be on a walker.
Three or four hours might be needed, even if this scenario were possible. Contrast this with another scene: Open garage door, get in car, turn on heat and drive safely to your destination.
Yes, cars offer comfort and convenience and we have become used to them. When people have become accustomed to something, when it is a large part of how they live, it is impossible to exchange it for something much less desirable.
In Greater Victoria, we have a large population of folk who can’t bike or walk far, or want to stand in the rain at a bus stop. Many of them helped build this city; surely they should be given consideration.
When something (flying machines? magic carpets?) becomes available, that will be the time to denounce car travel.
Meanwhile, why not appropriate properties on the McKenzie route. See how that one goes.
Ivy Pye
Saanich
Overdose prevention needed in hospitals
An estimated 165,000-225,000 British Columbians from all walks of life will access the unregulated drug market throughout any 12 months, including about half who do not have a substance use disorder or fit into the definition of addiction.
Society continues to shame, punish and stigmatize people who use drugs, forcing many to conceal their drug use. The unregulated drug market is dominated by toxic mixtures of strong opioids and benzodiazepines, which in combination cause oversedation and respiratory depression.
When these dangerous effects occur secretly, there is no opportunity for a timely first aid response. Stigma is fuelling a public health crisis that isolates and kills an average of six people each day in B.C.
While it might not be acceptable to some, the reality is that drug use occurs in most places, including in health-care settings. As in other environments, drug users are typically forced to use in secret when in hospital.
Health-care workers have rightfully expressed safety concerns about this reality, and many advocate for evidence-based, practical solutions.
This week, health-care providers are setting up an overdose prevention site on the grounds of the Royal Jubilee Hospital and Nanaimo Regional General Hospital to demonstrate a life-saving intervention.
There are more than 50 supervised consumption and overdose prevention sites in B.C. Substantial evidence shows that these services save lives, support patients to remain in the hospital, and provide pathways to voluntary treatment and recovery.
Overdose prevention services should be implemented in hospitals immediately for the safety of us all.
Heather Hobbs, RSW
Victoria
Address inequality to prevent problems
Homelessness and food insecurity are rapidly growing phenomena across Canada. These issues have their roots in inequality and the erosion of a social safety net over the past 50 to 60 years.
How do our federal and provincial governments justify leaving municipalities, non-profits and communities to bear the burden of their neglect? How much longer can non-profits serve a growing need that is the result of neglect at all levels of governance?
The fact that the lowest earning Canadians increasingly go without shelter, food and other basic necessities of life matters little to our elected officials, it seems, as no interest or action to support them adequately is demonstrated at any level.
Most elected officials seem more concerned with getting re-elected and pleasing corporations and the middle class, ignoring the growing cost of neglecting those with the least.
Meanwhile, non-profits and social service organizations do their best to support those left behind, with shrinking donation bases and growing need.
Don’t blame the poor, who are disproportionately seniors, disabled people, youth without family supports, newcomers, and single-parent families with few options for increasing their incomes due to economic, health, child care, language and other barriers.
Nobody wants to be poor, ignored and treated like trash (think Pandora Avenue bylaw sweeps of tent cities, where the homeless and their belongings are tossed out).
Delays in proactively addressing poverty and inequality causes needless suffering, increased health and public safety costs, and preventable deaths. These problem will continue to grow, and cost more and more, sadly, and nobody wants to address it in a meaningful way.
Jennifer Heinrichs
Victoria
No room for dignity in B.C. hospitals
When I arrived at North Island Hospital in Campbell River to visit my father, I was shocked to learn he had been unceremoniously and, without warning, transferred — not to another room, but to the hallway.
In mere minutes, he was handed a hospital-issued bag and told to pack up so housekeeping could start sanitizing the space for another patient. My father, who has paid taxes his entire life into the health-care system, was reduced to a bed in a corridor.
Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. A friend shared that their father and uncle experienced the same “hallway transfer” during hospital stays in Campbell River.
Overcapacity is forcing staff into impossible decisions, leaving loved ones upset and compromising care. This is dehumanizing. This is harmful to a patient’s mental health. And this is happening right now in B.C.’s hospitals.
Consider this: My father, born in 1946, is part of the Baby Boomer generation, which spans until 1964 and includes more than nine million Canadians.
If those at the beginning of this generation are already relegated to hospital hallways, what does that say about the future of B.C.’s overburdened health-care system?
Hallway health-care should not be the norm. We must demand action to address these systemic failures before the dignity of our loved ones — and the integrity of our health-care system — is eroded any further.
My father deserves better. We all do.
Emilie Longtin
Campbell River
Education matters in shaping leaders
If we don’t keep up our investments in schools — salaries for teachers and support staff, maintaining and building new plants, curriculum development, equipment and machinery, special needs studies and support of the public — we will elect felons, rapists, con men, hustlers, egotistical sociopaths to lead our community and country.
I wonder if the United States has learned this lesson.
David Gray
Sidney
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