Dogs are not a species we should worry about
I’m surprised at the large number of people who write to the Times Colonist expressing their fear of the dogs they encounter along the Dallas Road waterfront.
There are probably a few crotchety canines out there, but I’ve never met one on Dallas Road. Usually, I am the recipient of some very wet doggie kisses and slobber.
Dogs are not among the few species considered violent. The most dangerous of all the animal species is the human being. This fact is backed up daily by the news media. The prisons are not full of dogs!
Cheera J. Crow
Brentwood Bay
Low election turnout calls for amalgamation
Re: “Municipal elections should guide Eby’s path,” editorial, Oct. 28.
In lamenting the low voter turnout during our recent municipal elections, this newspaper blames it in part on “the huge candidate lists that confront voters”, proposing as a solution that “one option might be to raise the $100 deposit that candidates for municipal office must put up.”
A more promising approach would likely be to reduce the number of positions that municipal voters in the province must fill, in two ways:
First, amalgamate municipal jurisdictions on a regional basis, not only for emergency services but for municipal governance as a whole.
Second, elect councillors at a “ward” level, so that voters cast ballots only for a councillor in their own district (who would be expected to know something about that district and to genuinely represent its interests at the council table, which is certainly not the case now) rather than on an at-large city-wide basis.
Only the mayors would then be elected at-large, and there would be far fewer of them across the province.
Such a solution has been implemented successfully by other provincial governments including Ontario and Quebec a couple of decades ago, and our new Premier should indeed be guided in that direction.
Robin Farquhar
Victoria
Regional governance needs a close look
Yes, the extent of incumbent defeat in municipal elections sends a strong message to the province. The premier is wrong to think not.
All is not well in local government. I believe the mayors and councillors are taking voter heat for problems that are not being dealt with at the regional level.
What problems? Road congestion, slow production of rapid transit, housing, uncontrolled urban development, environmental threats, and more.
These problems require regional action but there is little authority and capacity to deal with them at that level. Until regional governance has independent leadership, authority and responsibility to act and be subject to voter response then there are going to be upsets at election time.
This is not an efficient system nor is it fair. The sooner the province takes a hard look at regional governance and its capacity to deal with problems of rapid change the better.
John Olson
Colwood
Let the consumers pay, not the taxpayers
I’m getting so very tired of hearing protesters telling governments to stop subsidizing oil and gas.
Let me propose a solution. I say, OK — let’s stop all subsidies to all for-profit companies. Full stop! Oil, gas, green energy, manufacturing et al.
After all if we want free enterprise then it should be the consumers of goods and services that pay for them not the taxpayers.
Let us have governments get out of the business of doing business. It should be clear to anyone paying attention that governments don’t do a very good job of running much of anything.
Take your taxes and apply them to the core services you were formed and elected to do.
Ron Sleen
Victoria
Changes to Mental Health Act could be dangerous
Violence against nurses and others is a major concern. People with severe mental illnesses are no more violent than others if they are treated. However, violence will certainly increase against nurses in psychiatry and others including families if the Mental Health Act is changed to allow treatment refusal.
Some civil rights groups support a challenge under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that will allow involuntary psychiatric patients, admitted without their consent, to be able to refuse the treatment necessary for their recovery and release. Now involuntary patients are treated and released within two weeks on average. That will change.
Studies show that involuntary psychiatric patients who refuse treatment have higher rates of assaults on nurses and other patients, continued suffering with hallucinations and delusions, and more restraints, rehospitalizations and homelessness.
Beds will be blocked by those who cannot be treated or discharged, reducing access to the homeless ill and others. The government will have to build new beds to “warehouse” ill patients. Nurses and psychiatrists become jailer not healers.
A man in Ontario illustrates the problem. He had refused treatment. The only alternative to “treat” his violence was to put him in solitary confinement. He stayed secluded for 404 days out of five years detained. He was only treated, successfully, after he attacked and severely injured a staff member.
B.C.’s attorney general is defending this dangerous challenge to our Mental Health Act. Allowing treatment refusal for involuntary patients means denying their liberty and health rights. It makes no sense.
John Gray
Victoria
Putting strata owners under pressure
Three levels of government have failed to address the shortage of rental housing, so the problem is being downloaded to the smallest possible unit — owners of condominiums.
As an owner of a modest suite in a small, self-managed building, I know that forcing smaller strata corporations to allow rentals will be devastating.
Our owners are seniors living on pensions and willing — as they can — to participate in tending the building to keep costs down. However, the management of the building is onerous, and few are able to serve on the strata council. Being forced to also manage tenants would be too much.
David Eby’s promise that strata corporations would be able to “appear easily” at the Residential Tenancy Branch to address issues of tenant behaviour reveals he doesn’t understand how onerous it is for landlords to go through this process, let alone those upon whom the responsibility will be forced.
I was a renter much of my life, and have no bias against them, but renting lifts the burdens of ownership. Under Eby’s plan, the burden will be solely on resident owners while investor landlords reap the profits.
Given the demographics and affordability of our building, investors would sweep up a majority of the units, leaving remaining resident owners the work of protecting their assets.
Forcing rentals may make available a minuscule number of units in Victoria that are empty due to rental restrictions, but thousands of strata owners will bear the costs.
Lael Trotter
Victoria
Housing the homeless can involve churches
With the weather turning colder and significant rain hopefully soon with us, the plight of the homeless will once again dominate concerns for their safety.
One unexplored method to assist during the wet/cold weather is to enter into discussions with the religious orders to provide sanctuary over the course of these trying times.
My suggestion is, quite simply, for the cathedrals in Victoria to permit the usage of the vestibules by the homeless. Doing so will at least signal that the churches of all denominations carry out their mandate “to help the poor, the destitute.”
A little Christian (or other) charity would make a significant beneficial contribution to those who are without means to improve their station in life.
Eric J. Ronse
Shawnigan Lake
Canada’s urban areas are all heat islands
Re: “Canada’s contribution of $200 million to climate-change satellites,” Oct. 19.
I was surprised to see that the announcement of these funds was made by a program manager for the Canadian Space Agency. I wonder what programs climate scientists would have suggested be funded.
My small program was cut by the federal government in the late 1990s. It was obtaining data showing how our development of the land surface caused temperatures at the ground level to rise.
It wasn’t until COVID came along that I had the time and inclination to write a summary paper based on these previously published data. They show that the main cause of heat islands is changes to the amounts of evapotranspiration in these areas.
All of our urban areas in Canada are heat islands. To reduce the number of deaths caused by extreme heat in the summer, it is very important that we understand this cause.
The likes of the National Geographic Society (read it on its website) claim that us, cars, trains, buses, factories and structures create the excess heat causing heat islands.
Many such claims regarding climate change are not made by scientists with relevant knowledge.
Trevor Lewis, PhD
North Saanich
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