Government should tackle the offenders
Our society’s perplexing problems would be so much simpler if they were homogeneous, but they are not.
If all Airbnb owners were fat-cat business people; if all homeless were simply house-less; if all renters were well-behaved responsible citizens … then the government’s heavy-handed blunt instrument approach to the rental problem may be appropriate.
Politicians generally have a need to be seen doing something. Some will launch a study or mount a broad public consultation. Really, they’ll do anything that has a multi-month time line. It lets them kick a problem down the road without the risk of actually doing something.
Well, the government is actually doing something. However, the plan needs a bit of tuning. Rather than affecting everyone, they need to focus on the guilty subsets: The landlords and owners out for profit at all costs, the homeless who’d rather take than contribute, and the tenants misusing their accommodations.
One of the strengths of the current government has been their willingness to adjust their ideas. To their credit they’ve responded to legitimate criticism in the past (museum replacement project, anyone?).
Perhaps the government will have the wisdom this time to tweak their new regulations. Perhaps they’ll find a way to encourage owners to look for longer term approaches.
Perhaps they’ll encourage the unhoused to be involved in seeking solutions. Perhaps they’ll be able encourage tenants to behave responsibly.
Mike Mitchell
Saanich
Christian background should not be ignored
Re: “How the Celts kicked off trick-or-treating and other Halloween mysteries explained,” column, Oct. 24.
David Sovka’s entertaining article on the origins of Halloween leaves out the Christian contribution.
Pagan in origin indeed, Halloween got its name and some customs from the medieval Catholic Church’s effort to replace it in European popular cultures.
Thus a pagan festival for placating spirits became a Christian one to pray on All Souls Day for the souls in Purgatory.
Young men went door to door on Halloween offering prayers for the dead in exchange for money or food.
At St. Andrew’s Catholic Cathedral in downtown Victoria, the names of every dead parishioner are listed on scrolls hanging throughout the church, all through November.
Steve Weatherbe
Victoria
Listen to right voice, and love thy neighbour
Re: “Atheist in a foxhole? Blame someone else,” letter, Oct. 23.
The author writes: “Religion is the bane of the modern world.” I would go further and suggest that it has been the catalyst for wars throughout the ages. It has been used, by man, as a tool for empowerment.
It has given great comfort to many and that is good. But it has also been the tool that has sometimes turned those same people into unwitting weapons.
We see that today, from Middle East turmoil, to U.S. evangelists‘ support of far right authoritarianism and even, in our dear Canada, political use of religious fear/hate to generate divisiveness.
This is not the time to abandon personal religious beliefs. If anything, put those beliefs into action!
Don’t they exhort you to “love thy neighbour, as you would love thyself”? Goodness can overcome if we listen to our right voice.
Dawn Devereaux
Victoria
Long-term land lease can reduce ownership costs
The problem with affordable home ownership is high land cost and local government approvals process.
One solution is a long-term (99-year) land lease and provincial requirements mandated to shorten local government process times. Long-term land leases decrease in value over time. They can provide ownership for lessees that is equal to or cheaper than rent. They qualify for mortgages.
My work on this concept has been reviewed by local government, the Capital Regional District, and staff in the housing ministry. All seem interested but so far, no uptake.
Here is how this works. Government lands and not-for-profit lands are made available at fair market price for land lease. Developers pay up-front.
Approvals process is shortened by provincial mandate. Three to six months.
Developers are incented to take the risk of producing homes, sold on completion at market price for long-term leased real estate. They make a profit.
My paper, developed over six months, demonstrates how this will produce land-lease home ownership, at monthly debt service cost equal to or less than market rental for titled real estate.
Affordable home ownership for families, seniors, and working folks that must now commute.
Peer review by a broker, real estate professional, lender, investor, contractor, local government administrator, and developer, all support this initiative.
This is done in other parts of the world and should be done here.
Peter Daniel
President
Woodburn Management (2010) Ltd.
Victoria
Short-term rentals hurt our housing stock
The issue with short-term rentals is that it removes housing stock from the market that could be used for more permanent housing.
To compensate for the diminishing long-term supply, communities try to create more residential housing, a portion of which may continue to be snapped up by short-term rental operators.
Essentially the rest of society pays the real cost of providing the short-term rentals.
It would be more reasonable for those interested in short-term rental income to pool their resources to build purpose-built hotels rather than siphoning off housing that others will have to replace.
Matt McGeachie
Victoria
Seniors have choices for getting health care
As a senior, I have the privilege of being involved with seniors groups in our city. As a retired registered nurse, I am listening to the fears expressed by so many seniors with complex medical needs and do not have a primary physician.
They are very discouraged with urgent care clinics, which are at capacity when they open at 8 a.m.
These seniors do not want to go to emergency as they fear the long waits, which they find exhausting.
I fear that they will not receive early intervention for a chronic disease flare-up, creating complications and having to be hospitalized, which is another fear for seniors.
Nobody seems to have an answer as to why, post-COVID, walk-in clinics remain closed.
It appears our government has no qualms about letting thousands of orphan patients live in fear.
Wendy Campbell
Saanich
Let’s give more help to those who are homeless
I need help understanding why the homeless crisis in every municipality is being redirected to the City of Victoria.
Saanich, for example, could be offering food and shelter for their homeless but has chosen to criminalize “their” already marginalized homeless population.
An article in the Times Colonist said that grouping vulnerable people in one location increases their vulnerability and essentially reduces their chances of successful rehabilitation.
Yet there is no plan to do things differently.
The issue with the homeless in Saanich was garbage. Instead of providing refuse containers, Saanich ticketed low-income vulnerable people and towed their vehicles.
Does anyone have any suggestions for solutions that do not result in criminalizing already marginalized Canadians?
Raegan Elford
Victoria
Government actions led to housing mess
The comments applauding the province’s latest effort in providing affordable rental housing by targeting those investors in Airbnb properties fail to point out how governments of all levels contributed to this mess by:
• Years of government failure to ensure that purpose-built rental buildings are as endemic as the approval given to condo complexes, the latter rarely providing “affordable living” either to renters or buyers.
• Enacting legislation overly favouring tenants at the expense (literally) of landlords resulting in many rental properties being sold off, the end result of again not providing “affordable living.”
• Overall inflation in property taxes, maintenance costs, etc., in juxtaposition of low rent increases have again burdened landlords to such an extent that selling the properties is the only relief open to landlords and again not providing “affordable living.”
The message of every condo complex having Airbnb rentals is a false narrative due to two reasons: Bylaws of the condo strata prohibiting short-term rentals and municipal zoning not allowing such rentals.
If there are transgressions occurring in these buildings, then it is up to the individual strata councils and the municipality to address them, not the far-reaching hand of the provincial government.
Randi Colquhoun
Victoria
Eby Farms in Michigan sounds a bit like here
Have the new rules regarding short-term rentals got you down? Feeling stressed out about investing in any way, shape or form in British Columbia?
Take a break from it all, and head off to The Sanctuary at Eby Farms, an Airbnb in Cassopolis, Michigan.
It is a peaceful sanctuary, as you would certainly expect from a 25-acre farm, but they do ask you to note: “We are a working farm with farm type noises from animals … please don’t try to pet the livestock. They are generally friendly, but can be unpredictable.”
On second thought, sounds all too much like the British Columbia Legislature, so maybe not such a great getaway after all.
Martha McNeely
Oak Bay
Back off, government, don’t tell me what to do
I am a 55-year-old man, who has worked hard for everything I have in my life. Forty years of working in extreme cold weather in winter, and extreme heat during the summer.
I have paid my share of taxes, and raised a beautiful family contributing to society the whole way. I want to buy a summer home, in Kelowna for example, however the government tells me I cannot do this and will tax me heavily on my vacation home.
Due to my hard work, I want to purchase rental properties for my retirement nest egg. The government is telling me what I can and cannot do with my rental properties. Who do they think they are?
Explain to me how they can get away with this! What’s next? Are they going to go door to door, and ask how many rooms you have free in your house, and then tax you extra if you do not rent them out?
When did it become normal for the government to tell me what to do with my hard-earned money? Last time I checked, hard work was the answer to my housing problems.
I would also like to add this. I would love to live in Maui, or the St. Lucia islands. I cannot afford it.
My father always told me when I was growing up, hard work will get you to where you want to be in life. I do not think he anticipated that the government would be blocking that statement and telling us what to do with our hard-earned money.
So please, government, leave the hard-working people in society alone, and do your jobs. This is supposed to be a free democratic society, and you telling us what to do with our money and properties is not one of them!
Garth Klein
Victoria
Let’s not forget the Harper deficits
Re: “What did we get from all that spending?” letter, Oct. 20.
The letter neglects to mention the massive deficits left by the Harper government from fiscal years 2008/2009 to 2013/2014. Conservatives branded it “stimulus spending” to help recover from the great recession.
Since coming to power the Liberals have also had to contend with a large recession, this one caused by the pandemic.
Context is everything.
Sean Gimbel
Mill Bay
Fix the problems in the health-care system
Re: “Political leaders out of touch on health care,” editorial, Oct. 20.
The editorial listed good news from the recent meeting of health ministers, then reminded us that political leaders are out of touch with hospital wards across the country.
By barging ahead with a national drug plan under deteriorating financial conditions, existing health programs may be threatened.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh need to open their eyes. Fix what we have first.
In my recent visit to Victoria General Hospital for surgery, I was shocked to see patients on beds in the hall outside my seventh floor four-bed room. Some patients are there several days! I was told this is regular practice.
Health Minister Adrian Dix and Island Health need to do whatever it takes to get patients out of the hallways.
Despite this overcrowding, my care by an army of health care professionals over two days was superb. But for how much longer?
Steve New
Victoria
Atheists in foxholes? Maybe rely on Lady Luck
Re: “A reminder about where atheists aren’t found,” letter, Oct. 19.
Of course, there are atheists in foxholes. A believer might pray for God to save him. An atheist might pray that Lady Luck (capitalized like God is) saves him.
Same thing. A mortar hits your foxhole, five of your comrades who you just held hands with and prayed to God are dead. You are alive.
Luck or God? If God were all-powerful, why would he/she allow war in the first place? Why would God let five of your pious friends die and let you live? I suggest that you were just Lucky.
Don Boult
Saanich
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