Need a passport? Well, good luck
Seven hours. That is how long it took so I could renew my passport to visit my brother in hospice care in California.
Seven hours and not one chair or bench to sit. In the last two hours we got to sit in a holding pen. No food or drink allowed.
Finally a 20-minute meeting to submit the paperwork.
Yes, we can apply online … if the form works. Yes, we can mail it in, with a three- to six-month response. Pathetic.
Alyssa Grace
Cowichan Bay
Forget the flyover, install a light
Re: “Keating flyover cost estimated at $76.8M, up 73% since 2019,” June 4.
The Keating flyover interchange had a rationale decades ago when the Capital Regional District and the provincial government were planning to make the Pat Bay Highway into a freeway to accommodate ever-increasing traffic volumes.
But the CRD board voted unanimously in 2021 to favour public transit improvements over highway capacity increases. Then in October, the provincial climate plan was updated and now targets a 25 per cent reduction in car travel by 2030.
An inexpensive traffic light would alleviate the safety issues with left turns at this intersection. An expensive interchange makes no sense when we are planning for a future with fewer cars.
Instead, this money should go to buy electric buses and build bus lanes for B.C. Transit’s proposed Victoria Regional RapidBus network.
Eric Doherty
Registered professional planner
Victoria
Nothing is free, not even admission
Re: “A free museum is far from a free ride,” letter, June 7.
A noble sentiment and one I would have supported in the past. But a visit to the Tate Modern Art Museum in London on a wet and windy November day changed my opinion.
There are no admission fees for public institutions like the Tate in Britain. The place was packed, large groups of school children running around yelling, locals wanting to get out of the rain and homeless keeping warm and taking up all the seats and benches.
The humidity felt like 85%, the noise level was oppressive, you could not get a clear sightline to any of the art, the space was not particularly clean, and the washrooms were comparable to B.C. Ferries.
A few groups of tourists were vainly trying to take in the exhibition while chanting “excuse me” as they tried to navigate their way through the galleries.
I had enough after 10 minutes, and on my way out I asked someone at the information desk how this came to be. After a big sigh and a sad look of resignation, I was informed that by eliminating entrance fees the operating budget had been reduced and care, maintenance, upkeep and security had all suffered.
There are times, especially in the evenings, when free admission is put aside for various groups to have access to the exhibitions, but not particularly convenient for tourists.
Compare this with MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, with admission fees. Far fewer visitors, minimal noise levels, very few children, spotless facilities lots of available seating and a very respectful attitude among the visitors for the priceless works of art on display.
Nobody respects free anything, and free admission turns a museum into a mall experience. I am not sure that that is what the writer had in mind.
Michael Butler
Victoria
Problem after problem with no idea what to do
We turned health care over to the accountants because it was about money, not doctors. Now, one million B.C. residents don’t have a family doctor.
We closed mental institutions because it was about community support, not mental illness. Now, 29,000 are homeless in B.C.
We defunded the police because it was about compassion, not law enforcement. Now, Victoria is rated by Statistics Canada in 2020 as having the highest crime severity in the province, fourth overall in Canada.
We released repeat offenders because it was about addiction, not crime. Now, the mayors of Abbotsford, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Kamloops, Kelowna, Nanaimo, New Westminster, Prince George, Richmond, Saanich, Surrey, Vancouver and Victoria have written to the attorney general about doing something about catch-and-release policing.
We are decriminalizing small amounts of fentanyl because it is about health issues, not dirty drugs. After 8,800 deaths since 2016 due to overdoses in B.C., how does one imagine this approach will work?
Trying to solve a problem by creating another, possibly even larger problem is not a solution. If you don’t know what to do, say so. If you don’t know where to go, stand aside and let someone else try.
Gerald Backeland
Sidney
A cure for health care, ignored in 1986
In 1986, I was deputy minister of universities, science and technology for British Columbia.
At the suggestion of my minister, I prepared a report for cabinet on the future needs for medical education in the province.
On the basis of the foreseen population growth over the next two or three decades, together with an estimate of the number of doctors needed to serve that population, less those expected to retire each year, the study showed that the UBC School of Medicine would soon be graduating less than 50 per cent of the doctors needed to serve the province.
Discussions with the dean of medicine indicated that, even with significant additional funding, there was a limit to the number of doctors that could be trained at UBC, and certainly not enough to adequately meet the future needs. It was suggested that a prosperous jurisdiction such as British Columbia should be a net exporter rather than importer of doctors.
Based on this simplistic analysis, the report recommended that funding be provided in future budgets for the planning and eventual establishment of a new School of Medicine at the University of Victoria on grounds that had been set aside for such a project at the time of the original establishment of the university. These grounds remain available to the present day.
Another recommendation of the report was that all students admitted to the medical faculties be offered a scholarship/bursary to cover the cost of their fees and a reasonable living allowance.
They would then be able to graduate without debt, but would be required to work as salaried employees of the province for the same number of years for which they had been financially supported. They could then be appointed to serve at clinics wherever they were needed in the province.
A further recommendation was that the Schools of Nursing at UBC and UVic be encouraged to offer Master of Nursing degrees that would qualify their graduates to serve as nursing practitioners, performing many of the basic services normally provided by physicians.
I presented the report at a cabinet meeting, but to the best of my knowledge no further action was ever taken. I do recall, however, one of the cabinet members thanking me but stating that British Columbia was such an attractive place to live that even if we had no medical school at all, the province would always be able to attract all the doctors it needed.
I believe that the recommendations of that report are perhaps even more relevant today than they were 36 years ago.
J.M. Dewey
Victoria
Dr. Bonnie Henry and her new e-bikes
To the haters and whiners, all because Dr. Bonnie Henry won a legitimate prize supporting a good cause, get a life.
Did you support the cause?
Pat Mulrooney
Central Saanich
Thank you Dr. Henry for getting it right
Thank you, Dr. Bonnie Henry, for all your incredibly rigorous and well-informed guidance during the pandemic.
Congratulations on being one of the Victorians to support the Victoria Hospitals Foundation via their current fundraising campaign. Congratulations also for winning the e-bikes. It must be nice to win at least one of the many causes I am sure you support.
We must keep in mind the Angus Reid poll showing that 68 per cent of British Columbians support your guidance through the pandemic, one of the highest rates in Canada. You have consistently got it right, and your weekly press conferences were eagerly anticipated, giving me hope and positive energy.
These are trying times, times that bring out the best, and the worst, in us. It is reassuring to have you as our provincial health officer.
Peter Hamilton
View Royal
Health-care workers deserve rewards
If further evidence was ever needed to demonstrate that stupidity appears to live large on the internet, you only have to turn to this latest attack on Dr. Bonnie Henry and her win of a minor prize on the health-care lottery.
I expect that these naysayers are the same conspiracy-minded, flag-waving Trumpist knuckleheads with the big noisy trucks and the F-Trudeau placards.
If it was up to the majority of British Columbians, every health-care worker in this province would be rewarded for their hard work and personal sacrifice.
I hope that Henry and every other health-care hero knows that the village idiots who live on the internet are often just frustrated by their own failures and looking to blame others.
Enjoy the bikes, Dr. Henry, and thank you for your leadership during trying times.
Len Dafoe
Nanoose Bay
Enjoy those bikes, Dr. Bonnie Henry
Dr. Bonnie Henry has been a tireless and informed public health leader in British Columbia for the past two years. This COVID pandemic has been a nightmare for all of us.
Henry’s consistent and calm leadership has been exemplary. Do I agree with every decision she has made? No.
Do I believe she has earned our respect? Yes, without a doubt.
I am so very sorry to hear that her support for the Victoria Hospitals Foundation fundraising efforts has resulted in such negative feedback from that small group of people who have caused so much misery over the past two years.
Did any of them buy a lottery ticket to support our hospitals? I wonder. I hope Henry enjoys those e-bikes.
Suzanne Veit
Esquimalt
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