Washrooms are closed, so plan ahead
As a person suffering with inflammatory bowel disease, I am sympathetic with those who lament the closure of most publicly accessible washrooms.
However, as a receptionist at a busy downtown office, I also understand why many have opted to close them.
At the beginning of the pandemic, security concerns prevailed downtown as people living on the streets suddenly had no access to shelter or municipal washrooms and tried to access private facilities.
In addition, the ongoing requirements for extra sanitization are time consuming, costly and an increased health risk for staff (and really, would require a full time bathroom attendant for busier places).
I would suggest that one should assume there will be no washroom and plan ahead.
Go to the toilet before you leave the house. Eat or drink after you run errands. Have things delivered if you must always be near a bathroom. Call ahead to inquire about facilities if you have a special medical need and the trip is unavoidable.
There is no perfect solution during COVID, unfortunately. Facilities under private management must prioritize resources and balance risks.
Leanne Parrott
Saanich
Gold-rush warehouses could tell many tales
If I were the Omnipotent King of Victoria Harbour, I would take over these two historic warehouses, restore them and use them as meaningful and stimulating public spaces to tell the stories of the last 5,000 years of human occupation in Victoria Harbour, the Selkirk Water and the Gorge Waterway.
These stories include, for example, the Spirit Rock of Camossung and the Island of the Dead, Victoria Harbour as a gathering place for First Nations, the various gold rushes, the sealing fleet, Victoria Harbour as a gateway to the Arctic, historic lumber mills, shipyards and industries, a historic bird sanctuary and the Six Harbours Agreement.
All designed, packaged and done by competent historians and heritage professionals. They are numerous in Victoria.
Jacques Sirois
Victoria
City needs to house the Maritime Museum
The best news that I recently heard was that the Maritime Museum is not going to be relocated in Langford.
Now that they are homeless, perhaps the Victoria city council will find accommodation for them.
Time to spend more time helping those that contribute to the financial welfare of the city than those that drain it.
Peter Denby
Victoria
Think of those who are hard at work
Throughout this pandemic I have worked part time in a retail environment.
I am fortunate. I do it because I enjoy the social contact and challenges.
My fellow workers, all younger than I, show up every day to serve us all.
They are trying to do the right thing and be responsible by attempting to make their way in this troubled world.
They make our existence work.
Their reward: Low pay, no paid sick days, transit costs, increased exposure and risk, and a continual struggle to find housing that is affordable.
On a daily basis I hear about the homeless and the continual struggle to fulfill our city councillors’ naive pledge to “eliminate homelessness in Victoria.”
Yes, there are some that really need a hand up, but there are others that have effectively found a system that is easy to manipulate.
Many have little desire to make the sacrifices that my fellow workers do on a daily basis. Why would they? They would have to give up free meals, free housing and free transit, as well as many other support services.
There is something wrong with this picture.
Some struggle paycheque to paycheque while others wait for lunch to be served.
This ongoing list of freebies promotes an attitude of reliance and expectations.
Three cheers to those who try.
Peter Bell
Victoria
Monument ploy and the local school board
Re: “School district finds extra funds for music programs,” May 7.
In 1969, the U.S. Congress refused to approve the wish list of the Department of the Interior (which the department called a “budget”), whereupon a senior director of the department shut down the Washington Monument and the Grand Canyon, on the grounds that there wasn’t enough money to maintain them.
It became known as “the Washington Monument ploy” and has been used countless times, recently by the Victoria school board, when it threatened to reduce the music program, prompting howls of rage and dismay.
I have a message for the school board. Next time you put together a “budget” that is larger than your projected income, give me a call. I’ll find the cuts without going outside the board office.
Ian Cameron
Brentwood Bay
Trust those in power with COVID information
Re: “Government’s COVID data leak highlights public’s right to ‘no’,” commentary, May 8.
As a 66-year-old Canadian, I believe that we elect people to govern and then trust them to do so.
Naive or not, I live in the best country in the world, so to me the proof is in the pudding. Premier John Horgan and Dr. Bonnie Henry and their colleagues are intelligent and they are better informed than either me or Kirk LaPointe. They are the experts. That is the trust we empower them with when electing them.
Racism is real, and fingering neighbourhoods and, by extension, peoples, “fuels panic, anger, cynicism and defiance,” to paraphrase LaPointe. Canadians are stressed, and I see bubbling to the surface the types of divisions we see to our south.
LaPointe’s commentary is “piling on.” It serves no purpose beyond further fanning the flames.
Mark R. Fetterly
Victoria
Wasting millions on highway expansion
Re: “Rail service on Island is a huge opportunity; costs have been exaggerated,” commentary, May 4.
The Vancouver Island Transportation Corridor Coalition is correct about this: “The provincial government has been spending hundreds of millions of dollars on highway expansion without considering what people on Vancouver Island want and need.”
For the $100-million cost of the McKenzie interchange, we could have had continuous bus lanes from McKenzie to Langford, with millions left over for projects like widening the Galloping Goose to separate people on bikes from walkers and improving cycling/rolling routes throughout the region.
On Wednesday, the Capital Regional District board will consider a proposal to advocate for transportation investments that help meet CRD sustainable transportation, affordability and climate objectives.
I trust the board will take a clear stand against wasting hundreds of millions more on highway expansion projects, and in favour of investing in public transit within our region and to other Vancouver Island communities.
Ruby Berry
Victoria
Build proper facilities for those in need
I lived in Thunder Bay during the first part of the 1980s when the government closed the mental health hospitals in Ontario.
Politicians assured us these people would just fit in. We as a society should be looking after these people, but because of a government failure they are now living in tents.
Our tax dollars would be better spent building new facilities for the mental health persons, where they would be looked after properly, not in motels and other inadequate facilities.
It’s not going to work.
Donald Thomas
Comox
Diesel-powered buses are a better deal
While reading the story about the electric school bus acquisition in Sooke, I was at first cheering the idea, but when the dollar figures involved were mentioned, I became skeptical.
The electric bus costs more than double the diesel counterpart, but then government subsidies make it actually cheaper for the school district, so of course they opt for it!
When I think of the basic utilization of a school bus, used perhaps three or four hours daily, five days a week, over just 10 months per year, a diesel-powered unit’s environmental impact is negligible.
It would seem to me that such massive overspending on electric school buses make no economic or climate-saving sense, and amount to showy, but meaningless, waste of taxpayers’ money.
George Zador
Victoria
Electric school bus? The old way is a better deal
Electric school buses — doesn’t it give you the warm and fuzzies all over?
A $200,000 subsidy for a piece of equipment that is used a few hours in the morning, a couple in the afternoon and parked on weekends, maybe 20 hours. Versus a B.C. Transit bus that could be used 12 hours per day, seven days a week or maybe 84 hours. A 400 per cent better return.
Only governments and those individuals wishing to bask in the glow of their self-anointed environment halos could make such a decision.
Frank Buruma
Colwood
Back your car in, then drive straight out
How refreshing to read Steve Wallace’s comments on safe parking.
Though it isn’t always possible to “drive through,” either because the space to do so isn’t available or poor design has thoughtlessly placed a curb between parking spaces, the idea is easily adapted with the BIDO principle: back in, drive out.
This is common sense: When you arrive to park anywhere, designated lot or elsewhere, the surroundings are visible — potential obstacles apparent, fixed such as signposts or movable such as other vehicles.
When you return, even in broad daylight, let alone when the weather has deteriorated or it’s dark, nothing may be in the same configuration and the potential for damage to your vehicle as you extract it is exacerbated.
If more people would do as Wallace suggests, maybe I would be saved the frustration of returning to my car to find that some irresponsible bastard has clumsily damaged it, as has happened four times this past two years — without leaving any note of apology, of course.
Roger Berrett
Shawnigan Lake
Bell those cats before they go out
As an animal lover in general and a cat lover in particular, I found the recent letter about the little hummingbird mauled by a cat very upsetting.
Cats are hunters by nature, and while it’s distressing to see the results of their marauding, they cannot be held responsible for their natural instincts.
If you “own” a cat, you are responsible for both its actions and its well-being. Statistics show that keeping a cat indoors can prolong its life, protecting it from disease, predators, traffic accidents and warped human beings. The huge bonus is that keeping a cat indoors helps protect our wildlife.
If you insist in letting your cat go outdoors, at least put a bell on its collar and give the poor little birds a fighting chance. Oh, and make a donation to Wild ARC. Your cat may be creating work for them, so the least you can do is help defray costs.
Pat Jackson
Victoria
A cat named Cleo needs to be free
A letter-writer’s heartrending story of her rescue of the one-winged injured baby hummingbird and her assumption of blame to her neighbour’s cat?
Maybe so, but the most ferocious marauders of fledgling birds are the ravens and crows. When next you hear the alarm calls in nesting season, watch and grieve for the winged savagery out there.
Our old cat Cleo has never bothered the birds and keeps close to home. We often rescue and relocate feral cats dumped by heartless kitten collectors. There is no denying cats’ natural instincts are a problem, more so if they are not belled.
The towers of glass being built nearby don’t help bird survival but our garden is a safe sanctuary in their shrinking world.
Cleo helps in keeping the rats and mice at bay but we worry if she gets a bad rap and wanders too close to the road. Some will not be too careful about her safety.
It’s a cruel world, but Cleo and her kin spread a lot of love even when some of her kind are less than perfect.
Have a heart, be kind and don’t make us lock up our dearest friend Cleo.
Russell Thompson
Victoria
Second doses of vaccine for cancer patients
As a cancer patient receiving weekly chemotherapy treatments at the Victoria cancer centre, I am appalled and deeply disgusted by the decision to deny patients such as myself second doses of the vaccine right away.
As the recent European study suggests, the first dose of the vaccine administered to immune-compromised patients will only provide at best about 30 per cent efficacy and in the case of blood cancers which I have, the protection drops to 18 per cent.
This means our level of protection against even the initial COVID-19 virus is zero, and against the variant strains it spells disaster for us.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, we implore you to reverse your decision on this immediately and allow all cancer and immune suppressed patients to receive their second dose ASAP.
By denying us a timely second dose you are in effect sentencing some of us to possibly death or long-term disability from COVID complications.
Torsten Norberg
Langford
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