Waiting for an accident in a protected area
Two recent Times Colonist articles concerning the Michalis bulk carrier dragging her anchor off Arbutus Ridge failed to mention just how close this anchorage is situated to shore and the Parkland Fuel Depot and secondly, it is (as evidenced by Thursday’s weather) dangerously exposed to a 16-kilometre stretch of open water which experiences regular high winds.
Notwithstanding the weather, there is also the risk of fire, engine failure, collision with the weekly fuel barges, and anchor failure. Despite what the articles imply, this freighter was fighting to stay off the shore for hours. It was a boat length or less from coming on shore.
The potential environmental damage of a freighter colliding with the shore, oil barge or the fuel depot would be catastrophic. This anchorage is not far from the Satellite Channel Ecological Reserve which is the only subtidal marine protected area in all of B.C.
The longer this anchorage exists the greater the chance of an accident. Why take the risk of an environmental disaster when this danger could easily be avoided at no cost by removing this anchorage?
Come on Transport Canada: be proactive and not wait for an accident before taking action.
Sandy and Ross Mosher
Arbutus Ridge
One more overpass would improve safety
The proposed Keating overpass will assist with traffic heading north and turning from the Pat Bay onto Keating Cross Road and from Keating Cross Road travelling south on Pat Bay.
The traffic coming from Keating industrial area, concrete trucks, garbage trucks, paving trucks, semi trucks with 53-foot trailers etc. with their destinations being north of Keating Cross Road now go up Central Saanich Road passing Keating Elementary School and residential areas to get to Island View Road and then turning left on Pat Bay.
Has the Ministry of Transportation considered an additional flyover, to be built at the same time, from Keating Cross Road going north to accommodate these trucks and car traffic ? A dangerous and noisy situation passing an elementary school and residential area? Yes, this will increase the cost, but this added flyover will be completed for our safety.
Joan Atherton
Saanich
Making cement bike path enclosures visible
As regular bicycle riders using the bike paths in Victoria frequently, my husband and I also drive along Wharf Street and other duo bike/car streets from time to time.
A glaring need for bright yellow paint markers on the cement borders became evident the last time we travelled along Wharf on a rainy evening. The grey colour of the cement border merged with the grey of the road, making it dangerous for both cyclists and vehicle drivers.
Hilary Sandford
Victoria
Independent schools are a B.C. bargain
Re: “Private schools shouldn’t get government money,” letter, Feb. 28.
Carol Pickup repeats the same old mathematically illiterate arguments against funding independent schools.
In B.C., “funding independent schools” actually means granting a subsidy to those schools based on 50 per cent of operating costs of other schools in the same district. Independent schools pay their own bricks-and-mortar capital costs and the other 50 per cent of their operating costs. And don’t forget: children attending independent schools are B.C. citizens and offspring of taxpayers, just like pupils in public schools.
If you cripple the finances of independent schools, their students will then flow back into public schools (not that there’d be room for them!) and cost the province 100 per cent of both operating and capital costs. Do the arithmetic.
Of course, Pickup and her ilk were opposed to any funding going to independent schools. They wanted it all for themselves, regardless of what a bargain independent schools are for all citizens and taxpayers in B.C.
Dennis Danielson
Sidney
Victoria will get the city it deserves
Almost 30 years ago, the federal government cancelled new, long-term investments in social housing.
A Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. budget freeze meant that Canada would no longer build supportive housing. This meant Canada became one of the few developed nations without a national housing strategy.
The results of this inactivity were predictable — a lack of affordable housing across Canada.
1. If you want affordable housing to be built in Victoria, the government has to finance it and build it. The private sector will not build it (or build as little as they can get away with) because they want to maximize profit on every new development.
2. Victoria council is selling a load of BS when they say the only way to get more affordable housing is to allow developers to build 28- and 30-storey towers. Very few of the units in these towers will be affordable.
3. Renters in the city of Victoria who voted for the current mayor and council, thinking they would get significantly more affordable rental units built, have been betrayed.
4. Victoria residents who are alarmed by the current trends in the city, and fear that we are turning into a smaller version of Vancouver, need to fight back. Remember, developers will promise anything to get their projects approved, then renege on any promise that isn’t legally binding if it suits them.
Apathy and inaction will result in us getting the city that we deserve, not the one we want.
Doug Lee
Victoria
They’re back, with more ideas that won’t work
The train people are back. They get thrown a lifeline every now and then, this time a consulting report designed to get some more federal money to preserve “optionality” for the return of a refurbished E&N. The hook this time is freight rail — it could take trucks off the roads and reduce greenhouse gases. Only $430 million for infrastructure and equipment.
So, we’ll revive passenger and freight rail — on the same track.
Via Rail’s problem in the Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto corridor is that its trains and passengers all travel second-class on the double-tracked lines owned by the freight-carrying CN and CP Rail. Freight has priority so passenger trains are shunted on to sidings to make way. Via schedules go out the window so people drive or fly or take the bus.
Yes, “provided rail service was faster, frequent and cost-competitive” with other transport modes “more freight” and passengers “could be lured.”
As the punchline of an old joke goes: assume we have a can opener.
Chris Lawless
Victoria
Critical questions for a revived E&N service
We have reached a crucial point in the debate about the E&N. There are all kinds of reasons to revive the rail to relieve the road traffic. There are also many people who have no interest whatsoever in reviving something that they never used anyway.
For me, there are three main points:
1. There is a good argument for a commuter link between Langford and Victoria.
2. There is not much need for a connection between Duncan and Courtenay.
3. Any link between (Nanaimo and) Duncan and Victoria will be futile unless there is a drastic modernization of the rolling stock.
The last stock was cumbersome, too tall, and too unwieldy to handle the convoluted climb over the Malahat. I know, I travelled it numerous times.
Why can’t we get Bombardier to provide us with equipment which can handle the climbs and the curves in a more efficient way?
John Stonehouse
Victoria
My budget problems (like a government’s)
I have a hypothetical problem. I have a credit card bill outstanding of $1,000. My grandmother has just given me $300 as a birthday gift. My hypothetical question is this: should I use the $300 to pay down my credit card bill, or should I call this money a “surplus” and go out and spend the $300 on a new pair of shoes?
I think I will pick the latter and leave the $1,000 bill for the next generation to pay. Or do we never have to pay any debt in the current generation?
Charles Krebs
North Saanich
Money for local police is a top priority
Re: “Police board resists paring its budget to reduce Victoria tax hike,” Feb. 25.
Thankfully, common sense prevails at the Victoria and Esquimalt Police Board, after refusing to amend its draft budget, as requested by city council. What are councillors thinking?
Downtown businesses are waking up to broken windows, theft and other vandalism, and council wants to limit law enforcement. Where on earth does that make sense? Tighten your belt in areas that do not threaten the safety of its citizens or the survival of its downtown businesses.
Bill Currie
Victoria
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