McKenzie, Quadra cannot lose lanes
Saanich proposes to reduce Quadra and McKenzie streets to single-lane vehicle traffic each way, with rapid bus lanes.
I am gobsmacked by this. I live four blocks from the intersection of Quadra/McKenzie and have a pretty good feel for the traffic flow.
McKenzie is a main traffic artery that connects not only the geographically dispersed areas of Saanich, but also many communities to both Highway 17 and Highway 1.
It is a designated truck route and a main emergency vehicle corridor. It’s easy to assume that the traffic is mostly work/school/university bound that could be serviced by a bus, but that is inaccurate.
Look up McKenzie from Quadra on any given Saturday and you’ll see traffic backed up in both directions. Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., close to the same.
It’s people driving their kids to sports practices, grocery shopping, heading up island, dropping off yard waste, visiting friends, first-responders and transport trucks, etc.
Activities that are not particularly bus friendly. It’s also seniors, a demographic that by Saanich’s own admissions makes up 31% of the population and has special mobility considerations.
This short-sighted plan would cause major traffic congestion and push traffic down busy back streets, many of which don’t have sidewalks.
Some streets are meant to stay two lanes each way, and McKenzie/Quadra are two of those. Saanich has missed the mark on this one.
Voters, speak now or forever hold your peace.
Paula Manning
Saanich
More street parking adds to danger
I recently emailed the City of Victoria to ask about why they removed some “No Parking” signs on St. Charles Street, just off Fort Street.
The reason I asked is because quite a large number of people, me and a few hundred other residents, access St. Charles from a little street called Maud and it will be much more difficult, almost dangerous.
It’s already tricky to see someone coming on St. Charles because of the rock walls and fences but the parked cars would make it almost impossible because you will be in the middle of the street before you see a car coming.
Anyway, time went by and I didn’t hear back until one day I saw some city workers at the corner. So, I stopped to talk with them and explained I had written to the city and they answered that a few other people had as well.
They explained that they needed more parking on the street and so they had removed the no parking signs.
I didn’t continue the discussion because I don’t think these were the people who were making final decisions anyway. But doesn’t it seem strange that developers are subtracting parking spaces and the city is adding parking spaces?
Must be the new math they talked about 40 years ago.
Nigel Beattie
Victoria
Blame governments for our low dollar
One of the major causes of the falling Canadian dollar is that we have elected governments and both provincial and federal levels that prioritize identity politics, big government, large deficits and high taxes, over economic growth, investment, and our long-term prosperity.
Canada had the wealthiest middle class in the world when Justin Trudeau was elected in 2015. Since then, a real GDP per capita gap has emerged with the U.S. of a projected $22,100 per year, according to University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe. For a country such as Canada that is blessed with abundant natural and human resources, this is nothing short of scandalous.
It is anyone’s guess where the Canadian dollar will eventually settle. Some of us are old enough to remember January 2002, when the dollar hit 62 cents U.S.. Maybe we will get there again, or perhaps go even lower.
Imagine the implications of this. How much will that head of imported lettuce or cauliflower cost? How much will it add to the cost of gas? Sadly, it is the poor that will bear the biggest brunt as their disposable income tends to get squeezed the most.
I recall an unbelievable comment by Trudeau a few years ago where said he didn’t care about monetary policy. If the disastrous performance of the Canadian economy in the past nine years is any testament, that statement has turned out to be true.
It will take years, not months, to dig out of this mess, assuming we elect governments that make our future prosperity a priority. Until then, expect more of the same with respect to the Canadian dollar.
G.K. Schick
Victoria
Traffic sensor needed on Rock Street
Re: “Major crash hazard because of construction,” letter, Oct. 19.
My neighbour’s letter has summed up the dangerous situation for drivers on Rock Street at its intersection with Quadra Street very succinctly; I thank him for bringing it to the public’s attention.
I’ve lived in this neighbourhood most of my life. Fifty years ago, entering the traffic stream, heading north on Quadra, was much, much easier; with age comes wisdom, though, and the increase in traffic, and its speed, would now make the attempt a suicide mission.
This problematic corner should have been addressed long ago. Now is the time to install a sensor on Rock Street to automatically trigger the traffic light on Quadra to change to red, so that drivers can safely exit Rock Street.
It’s not a matter of if, but when, an accident will happen there, otherwise.
Lorraine Lindsay
Saanich
Drug lab operators are mass murderers
Kudos to the RCMP for their successful investigation and charges for the massive drug bust in Falkland.
The police have done their job but we haven’t done ours, as what wasn’t mentioned is why this extensive drug “supermarket” lab was located in B.C., rather than the United States, where penalties if convicted would likely be life without parole.
In Canada, they might get 10 years and be out in six. In my opinion the perpetrators are mass murderers and should be treated as such.
This is personal to me as my foster daughter died on the streets of an overdose two years ago.
Peter M. Clarke
Victoria
Offer suggestions to find housing
Re: “Sports groups seek tougher rules in Saanich parks,” Nov. 3,
The people involved in sports groups are housed and have at least some food on their tables.
Rather than harassing municipalities about people sheltering in our parks because they don’t have homes and any food on their tables — they don’t have tables — it would be more constructive to offer suggestions regarding finding permanent accommodation so that folk could live in a home, have help and support to provide meals.
Then they, too, might be able to be part of a sports team to enjoy the parks around our city.
Ann Maffey
Saanich
We should not allow bucks to roam free
How long will it be before we read the headline “Aggressive deer kills child in their own backyard”?
“Stupid” doesn’t even begin to describe a municipal/provincial policy that allows an eight-point buck to roam an urban neighbourhood unchecked while residents are encouraged to restrict their movements out of fear for their own safety. How long will we put up with this nonsense?
Elizabeth Causton
Victoria
Keep dogs leashed in rutting season
Deer are prey animals. When they see a dog, they think wolf and death. Keep your dogs leashed and stay clear of areas where you know deer to be, especially now in rutting season.
Wendy Darbey
Langford
Ban backyard burning to ease pollution
In 2019, Nanaimo council declared a climate emergency, but in 2024 Nanaimo still allows backyard burning on some lots inside city limits.
Declarations of emergencies generate lots of headlines but what actions has council taken to address the problem? On a global scale there are limits to how much Nanaimo council can do to impact climate change but we do have a certain amount of low hanging fruit they could address.
Banning backyard burning would be a start. Not only does it create a lot of pollution but the smoke forces neighbours to use clothes dryers instead of hanging wash on an energy-free line to dry.
Having large enough reservoirs for our abundant winter rains would encourage the growing of plants, the lungs of nature.
Instead, we have watering restrictions and dormant vegetation. In some cases, gardeners have given up and replaced plants with gravel due to the watering restrictions.
It has been five years since our council declared this climate emergency and in that time they have failed to address these simple issues, which are well within their authority. Declarations are meaningless without actions.
S.I. Petersen
Nanaimo
Publish opinions from all sides
A recent letter criticized the Times Colonist for publishing a letter with which the writer disagreed.
The writer’s thinking has an undemocratic tone. It implies that she would like to read letters only agreeable to her.
It seems she also assumes the letter was from an “old privileged person.”
I find it informative to hear from all directions. It’s interesting to find what others are thinking.
Kudos to the Times Colonist for publishing opinions from all sides.
Roy Katsuyama
Saanich
Dismantle Indian Act, focus on helping
Re: “Criminalize denialism of residential schools, survivors urge,” Nov. 1.
This requires significant well-informed discussion.
The challenge is that the topics are only a part of Canadian history that covers all of Canada over a long period of time, before and after Confederation in 1867.
In other words, different times, different circumstances, different results, including positive experiences that are mentioned in the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Report.
There is a lot to criticize about interlocutor Kimberly Murray’s report. I will only focus on proposed legislation that would criminalize expressing a point of view that the authors and supporters of this Report do not like, simply because it does not reflect their strongly voiced personal points of view.
This proposed legislation would be a constitutionally unauthorized clampdown on free speech, difficult to write, more difficult to enforce and would result in numerous lawsuits.
Instead, start dismantling the Indian Act that all agree is a racist statute. Move away from spending taxpayer money in the billions of dollars without due process accountability.
Focus on spending money on those living under adverse circumstances. Acknowledge the verifiable bad of the past, but sprinkle in some stories about the good as well.
The contents of the report and recommendations are often historically false, would be harmful to free speech, and are a divisive path to reconciliation. It should be shelved.
Bob Lisevich
Sidney
Hateful, ignorant words about our ancestors
The well deserved condemnation of the B.C. Conservative candidate’s hateful display of ignorance regarding Canada’s Indigenous peoples resulted in one letter writer referring to European colonists arriving on these shores as “white demons.”
This characterization of our European ancestors was every bit as hateful and ignorant as the comments made by the Conservative candidate, yet I see no wave of woke fury hitting the editorial page.
Why is this? Are we to be forever bullied into silence and to rend our garments in some daily show of ancestral shame?
I am proud of my family and our history in this country. My family, like most Canadians, built things, they raised kids, fought and sometimes died in our wars.
And they, like most other Canadians, had absolutely no part in residential schools and the government’s racist ideology that drove them.
I am all for reconciliation and truthfulness but I will not be a punching bag for racist hatemongers.
My ancestors were no more “white demons” than the Indigenous peoples were “savages.” Name calling serves no purpose other than division.
Len Dafoe
Nanoose Bay
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