It’s up to all of us to make the city cleaner
Workers and shirkers, givers and takers, it has ever been thus.
Every morning, I drive along our lovely Ocean Boulevard, and there is the usual litter between the 39 trash bins. Very sad, but others pick up after these slobs.
Litter louts and systemic idleness.
We have similar examples of human deficiency everywhere. In some countries, the streets are always spotless. Is it cultural decay when these visual street barometers signal many of our concerns?
Parents, citizens and teachers strive to offset the disaffected, but the numbers are out of control; our institutions and police have become toothless.
Shoplifting, theft and disrespect for law are wholesale. Only a much firmer hand can structure any remediation. It will get much worse if radical action is delayed.
Temple and street cleaning is everyone’s responsibility. If you see it, report it or pick it up.
Russell Thompson
Victoria
Food bank prediction came true, sadly
As we continue to deal with the issue of poverty, and access, for many, to sufficient food, there’s an interesting back story to food banks.
In the mid-1980s I attended a social work conference that included a presentation by a young social work academic. His name was Graham Riches, and he tried to convince us that food banks were becoming more numerous and would soon become institutionalized as an established part of Canada’s way of addressing poverty.
His book Food Banks and the Welfare Crisis (1986) followed.
Almost 40 years later we no longer regard food banks as unusual, short-term or limited to a few individuals living at the bottom of the income ladder.
Study after study shows the huge impact proper nutrition has on health, education, self-esteem, fitness and numerous other qualities of life.
Donating to a food bank has now become as usual as giving to cancer, heart disease, refugees or any of the many other good works that help to bind us together as caring persons, and supports the sometimes frayed fabric of our society.
I wish that Graham Riches’ prediction had been wrong and we had pursued a better way to feed the underfed.
Meantime, don’t expect government to meet every need; it either can’t or won’t.
Arnie Campbell
Saanich
Alternative approval is not a good process
The recent comments by Matt McGeachie on the subject of the Alternative Approval Process by municipalities and regional districts are spot on.
Whether the tax funds being sought are large, as in the $83-million Capital Regional District Housing Fund, or small as in the two announced during the last few days by the CRD — to establish Regional Food and Environmental Stewardship services — the democratic principles are the same.
The author’s critique of the AAP is as comprehensive as it is devastating, but let me add one more thought.
Not only is negative-option voting an inherently undemocratic means of raising tax dollars, it puts every member of the CRD board in a potential conflict of interest with their fiduciary duty to the residents of municipalities to whom they owe their electoral legitimacy.
Rule by minority negative vote meets no acceptable definition of democratic process, particularly when little effort is made to inform voters that the process is underway.
The future of the AAP needs to be decided by the courts and hopefully that will happen before too long.
John Treleaven
Sidney
Nothing to fear in Hancock’s words
Two recent letters took columnist Trevor Hancock to task for expressing his worries about corporate lobbyists who show up in force at relevant government meetings and significant environmental conferences.
Their criticism fluttered around the idea that corporations deliver the products and services we enjoy, along with our touted standard of living (deteriorating as I write, but that’s another topic), unreserved defence of the capitalist system, and claims that if we wanted government to manage the economy, we’d vote for it.
I re-read Hancock’s column looking for the kinds of assertions that would justify such reader reaction. I couldn’t find criticism of corporate initiative, our standard of living, capitalism or our democracy.
Instead, I found a well-reasoned and informative piece about how corporations show up at environmental conclaves, attempting to blunt and discredit unsympathetic legislation and viewpoints that might be good environmental science, but are bad for corporate practice and profits.
If we could count on corporations to say, upon the discovery that some product or practice was harmful to society and the environment, “Omigod, let’s innovate and change our product, process, system immediately so we’re not causing further damage,” Hancock could write about the birds and the bees.
But that almost never happens … does it?
Gene Miller
Victoria
Damage from a careless comment
A Tuesday letter stated that “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau skipped the world climate conference to go see Taylor Swift.” Did the writer care enough to verify with the Prime Minister’s Office that he indeed prioritized a concert over an international conference? If not, then he unfairly planted in readers’ minds the implication that the prime minister shirked his duty for a frivolous reason.
With a little research, the letter writer would also learn that all First World heads of state do not attend COP summits but choose instead to send top-level climate experts and policy makers with knowledge, expertise and experience in the field of climate change. Canada’s team was outstanding!
It is fair in a democracy to disagree with a leader’s policies. It is not fair to publicly float biased, careless assumptions about a leader’s commitment and character. The damage is done now but perhaps the letter writer will do some research and be careful before hitting the “send” button next time.
Judy Newman
Victoria
MLAs cost too much, and lack training
The pay for B.C. MLAs is out of line at $120,000. What on earth is this pay based on? MLAs require no specialized knowledge or training.
My reasons against excessive pay for non-credentialled MLAs:
1. Many jobs are far more impactful than being an MLA and that includes teachers who start at less than half the MLA salary after forfeiting four years to gain credentials to teach. It is undemocratic to pay untrained people twice as much as trained people.
2. Three horrific racists ran in the Conservative Party. Two were elected! How do we get rid of them?
3. Educate the MLAs or pay them as uneducated labour. Credentials need to be tied to salaries.
4. Most of these untrained MLAs know nothing about money or responsibility. MLAs don’t require four years of post-secondary study in any discipline. Why not train them? Hire those with degrees and knowledge in business, commerce, history, human rights?
5. Being an MLA is not harder than being a teacher. Being a teacher is 24/7. Being a teacher is a huge contribution to society. Imagine if we paid teachers for their teacher training?
Imagine if people were not given more than $120,000 for nothing. Imagine if teachers were paid $120,000 to start and MLAs only $60,000.
Perhaps more ethical people might run? Who knows. It is worth looking at.
Sabrina Fox
Ladysmith
Small and adaptable are keys to survival
Re: “Capital, free markets allow personal choice,” letter, Nov. 27.
I completely agree with the letter condemning the ideas put out by Trevor Hancock about restricting our use of the wonderful range of goods and services make available by corporations operating freely within our open democratic system.
We are able to sunbathe on Moana Kea at Christmas, tour Europe and visit Antarctica, all made possible by efficiently run corporations set up to provide services.
I cast my mind back to a former age with a similar set-up and a (sort of) happy outcome. In this case there was also a rapid climatic change but there were no Hancocks, or if there were they were ignored, fortunately for us as it turned out.
Something about dinosaurs and not adapting quickly enough except for some small insignificant ones.
The outcome in that case was that the big dominant ones did not survive the rapid climatic change, but a few small adaptable ones, I think of them as the rats of their age, did and after many millions of years gave rise to us.
So look kindly on rats, they may be your future.
Joe Harvey
Victoria
Put federal money to better use
I’m in the Christmas spirit, so why isn’t our federal government?
I’m wondering if there are better ways for the feds to spend $6.3 billion from the people’s treasury for a one shot $250 to those working and a brief GST holiday to many who don’t need it.
Wouldn’t the people’s money be better spent ensuring all Canadians can afford to buy adequate nutrition for themselves and/or their families?
Perhaps we could end the need for food banks across this country instead of spending our tax dollars to entice voters.
Let’s help those in real need! After all, it is Christmas.
Phil Le Good
Cobble Hill
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