How about a Malahat tunnel?
When on a family vacation in Italy last year, I was quite surprised at the number of tunnels throughout the country.
There were tunnels even in situations that seemed fine to make a road “over” than “through” a hill. Further, some were many kilometres long.
Looking at the Malahat’s permanent congestion, why don’t we make a tunnel from the south entrance to the top of the first summit? I measured the distance on one such trip, total length five kilometres. Small potatoes in the tunnel world.
There will never be permitted a four-lane road through Goldstream and people who suggest “slower speed limits” and “more ferry runs” as solutions are lacking basic traffic flow math skills.
The impacts of a tunnel are minor compared to the challenges of widening the existing road and continued safety hazards of doing nothing.
If there is a need for whatever reason to do a half ——ed job like the Keating flyover with no southbound egress or northbound ingress, just make it smaller and keep larger vehicles and hazardous cargo on the existing route.
Dan Richards
Saanich
Non-profit lot idea is just a fiasco
Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto has proposed a perk for non-profits to house the homeless on their “underused” parking lots in order to save on taxes. The idea makes zero sense.
The parking lots at these places are mostly empty during the day and full most evenings since that is when people are off work.
Big events like dances and weddings go until midnight or 1 a.m. on weekends. When does the mayor propose the homeless people set up camp?
All facilities would need to hire security since the homeless will look to enter the building to use the washrooms and any other facilities on site.
Many groups will stop renting the halls and late evening attendees would need to be escorted by security to their vehicles. Attendees will also be hoping that their vehicles have not been broken into.
The use of the hall for choirs, weddings, dances, dinners, social functions and meetings in the evenings would be greatly reduced, if not totally lost.
Most of the revenue that non-profit organizations make in order to stay open is in the evenings and this revenue will dry up. There is no positive note for any facility in this lose/lose proposal.
This perk is only a perk in the mayor’s eyes.
John de Pfyffer
Victoria
Think climate change when casting ballots
With the upcoming provincial election and the “merger” of the B.C. Conservative and BC United parties, it’s important to learn how the Conservatives would approach the climate crisis.
Consider the following:
1. In 2022, then-B.C. Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon removed John Rustad from caucus following Rustad’s boosting a social media post casting doubt on climate change and urging people to “celebrate CO2”.
Rustad also shared a post that people should be glad CO2 is being emitted into the environment.
2. Lest one think that 2022 is old news, here are quotes from the B.C. Conservatives current website: “Dramatically expand B.C.’s natural gas production and LNG export facilities and reduce global emissions through the displacement of coal-fired electricity in countries like China.”
And, “Get Pipelines Built. Pipelines are the safest and most economical means of transporting oil and natural gas and are essential in getting our resources to market. Their construction, including TMX, Coastal GasLink and Northern Gateway, deserve our complete support.”
It’s evident to me that the Conservatives are more interested in serving the oil and gas lobby than in being serious about climate change.
Serious experts warn that bold measures are required now in order to give the planet a fighting chance. The Conservatives would turn the climate clock dangerously backward.
Voters should very carefully consider how they plan to cast their ballots.
Chris Ralston
Duncan
It doesn’t work, so let’s try it again
I am astonished and appalled at Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto’s proposal to let unhoused people camp in church parking lots.
After admitting that “What we’re doing isn’t working,” the mayor has come up with a proposal to do more of the same, except in church parking lots instead of just parks and Pandora Avenue.
That she would consider this a feasible solution, no matter how temporary, shows a breathtaking absence of good sense.
These are not cars, they are people, many with complex needs. Shuffling people and their tents from the boulevard on Pandora Avenue to the gravel parking lot of a church does nothing more than underscore a motive of political expediency and a complete lack of empathy.
How is sleeping in a tent in a parking lot with no facilities on hard gravel or pavement any more reasonable a housing solution than sleeping on the Pandora boulevard?
The definition of bad public policy is making the same mistake over and over again and expecting different results.
Valerie Sovran
Victoria
Time for new approach to homelessness
Growing homelessness, and with it often violence and addiction, are nothing new.
Canada faced similar tragedies before the First World War, in the 1930s, and after the Second World War.
From the 1990s on, Ottawa and the provinces’ near-desertion of social housing and subsidization of private markets kept municipalities on the front-line of public policy failure.
Escalating global climate change and conflict promise worse days ahead. Short-term fixes, like the proposal before Victoria council to bully already hard-pressed community groups — such as the Polish and German halls in James Bay — to shelter the homeless in temporary dwellings, including vehicles, in exchange for property tax concessions only guarantee further calamity.
Good government requires a massive re-think of longstanding practice, not Band-Aids that stigmatize victims and undermine community solidarity.
For those who live there, Victoria is ground zero, but our problems have no borders. Nor should solutions.
Veronica Strong-Boag
Victoria
Green ideals, but what about Shawnigan Lake?
Re: “Former B.C. Liberal minister says he may vote NDP,” Aug. 30.
Terry Lake, an ex-B.C. Liberal environment minister, is mulling throwing his support to the NDP because he’s worried the B.C. Conservatives stance on climate change doesn’t quite meet his own lofty views on protecting the environment.
That’s rich. This coming from the self-proclaimed environmentally conscious former B.C. environment minister who permitted a contaminated dump smack in the middle of the Shawnigan Lake watershed.
That assault on clean water and the environment hardly speaks well of Lake’s environmental credentials.
Steve Housser
Shawnigan Lake
Ordinary workers? You’re in wrong place
So Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is on Vancouver Island in an attempt to appeal to ordinary workers?
I beg to protest. Vancouver Island has no ordinary workers … only extraordinary ones.
Colin Newell
Former CUPE-BC member, steward and vice-president
Victoria
Follow the new law for safer cycling
Re: “Maybe, finally, we will talk about bicyclist safety,” commentary, Sept. 4.
Paul Bucci’s commentary on the tragic deaths of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau while cycling is a sobering reminder that B.C. has “safe passing” laws for cyclists.
They might not have prevented the drunk driver ramming into the Gaudrault brothers. But we should use the tragedy to educate ourselves.
As of June, drivers must give a safe distance when passing a cyclist. On roads more than 50 km/h it’s 1.5 metres. That usually means the vehicle must cross over the single or double yellow centre line when passing, if it’s safe to do so.
B.C.’s new “safe passing” law permits that. If there’s oncoming traffic, drivers must slow down and wait to pass.
It’s a learning experience for many of us. Get with it!
Steve New
Victoria
Luxembourg drivers are better than that
Re: “Maybe, finally, we will talk about bicyclist safety,” commentary, Sept. 4.
There is obviously a need to talk about and act about bicyclist safety. However, the commentary is nonsense.
The author talks about various places around the world, how drivers were aggressive towards cyclists, and on and on. What about local drivers here in Victoria? He mentions luxury SUV drivers in Luxembourg who were aggressive, fast and dangerous. As someone who lived in Luxembourg for more than 10 years, and rode my bicycle daily, this is simply rubbish. Quite the contrary, it is my experience that drivers were always courteous towards cyclists.
Roger Cyr
Victoria
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